East Midlands Air Quality Network Andy McParland Environmental Hazards and Emergencies Department - Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards CIEH East Midlands Conference 2015
Public Health England s Air Pollution Objective Develop a programme in support of national and local government to reduce 25,000 deaths each year in England attributable to air pollution The new public health arrangements for England provide an opportunity to join up national-level research and advice on air pollution & climate change with local-level influencing and action. Public Health England is keen to ensure that the design and development of action on air pollution occurs at all appropriate levels, local, regional and national, including creating opportunities for actions to be co-ordinated by all stakeholders. 2 East Midlands Air Quality Network
National Air Quality work to date: Mortality burdens associated with PM 2.5 report published Submission to the Environmental Audit Committee inquiry on air quality PHE Air Pollution & Public Health Advisory Group A first draft discussion document, outlining potential options for a PHE work programme, presented to the advisory group for comments at its inaugural meeting on 24th November 2014. PHE Stakeholder Event just been held 2 Feb 2015 15 potential PHE work objectives have been shared and discussed with wider stakeholders. Initial feedback indicates that PHE should focus on advocacy, awareness-raising and providing authoritative evidence of the impacts of air pollution on health. 3 East Midlands Air Quality Network
Why have an East Midlands Air Quality Network? To complement and inform the national work of the Air Pollution and Public Health Advisory Group. To nurture a placed based approach in the East Midlands by working alongside our partners to develop a good understanding of local priorities and tailor our support accordingly. There is a wealth of air quality knowledge and experience at district levels. Innovative work is being undertaken in EM, the sharing of good practice and mutual support across county boundaries is patchy. Directors of Public Health are in many cases very remote from air quality functions with many carried out at lower tier levels. Lower tier air quality issues effectively become invisible at the upper tier level. This has been recognised locally, however the linking together of lower tier air quality work with upper tier public health is in its infancy. 4 East Midlands Air Quality Network
East Midlands Air Quality Action Workshop PHE facilitated a local air quality workshop on 15 December in Nottingham. Participants included, Public Health, Environmental Health, Planning and Transport stakeholders from unitary, upper and lower tier authorities across the East Midlands. Workshop aims were: Improve participants understanding of air quality and air quality actions that can address wide ranging local health impacts; Help deepen participants appreciation of each other s role in addressing air quality; Foster working relationships across authorities to begin thinking about the problem at a regional scale and ways to share good practice and collective working across the East Midlands on air quality and related issues; and Explore gaps in the existing guidance and intervention support in order to prioritise future PHE locality working and also to inform the development of the PHE national workplan. 5 East Midlands Air Quality Network
Workshop questions As part of the workshop group discussion, the following questions were put to workshop participants: When considering the adverse impacts of air pollution on health: What unmet needs exist that PHE could help to meet? These could be the unmet needs of air quality professionals, public health professionals, policymakers, the public or others. They could be local or national. They could relate to gaps in available information, advocacy or actions. We are interested in areas where the adverse impacts of air pollution on health could be reduced but currently are not? What can be done to change this or improve matters? How can PHE help? Would the establishment of an East Midlands Air Quality Network be of benefit at a local level? If so, can PHE help to facilitate this? Who should be involved in setting this agenda for these type of discussions? What next steps should we take? 6 East Midlands Air Quality Network
Workshop outputs The consensus was that a PHE facilitated, East Midlands Air Quality Network would be of benefit at local level. On that basis PHE East Midlands undertook to: Establish an East Midlands Air Quality Network to include upper tier and county representatives from Environmental Health, Public Health. Approaches will also be made to: Transport and Highways; Planners; Regional CIEH and sustainability colleagues. Arrange an inaugural meeting in the first quarter of 2015 to establish the structure, scope and Terms of Reference for the Network. Ensure that feedback from this workshop informs local air quality work across the East Midlands and is fed into the development of a PHE national program to support national and local government in reducing the 25,000 deaths each year in England attributable to air pollution. 7 East Midlands Air Quality Network
Some links PHE-CRCE-010:Estimating local mortality burdens associated with particulate air pollution Public Health Outcomes Framework https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimating-local-mortalityburdens-associated-with-particulate-air-pollution http://www.phoutcomes.info/public-health-outcomesframework#gid/1000043/pat/6/ati/102/page/0/par/e12000004/are/e060 00015 8 East Midlands Air Quality Network
Acknowledgments: PHE: Naima Bradley, Sotiris Vardoulakis, Alec Dobney, Adrienne Dunne, Jim Stewart-Evans, Karen Exley, Sarah Robertson, Rachel Moll, Alison Gowers, John Harrison, Paul Cosford. PHE s Air Pollution and Public Health Advisory Group Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) Department of Health, Defra, DfT, DCLG, DECC, EA The new National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit (NIHR HPRU) in Environmental Change and Health (led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) IAQM, CIEH 9 East Midlands Air Quality Network