The legal limit on the most dangerous type of air pollution will be halved but not until 2040, under government plans that have been condemned as too weak by air quality campaigners.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, will propose today that the limit on fine particles in England should be cut by 2040 from an annual average of 20 to 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air (mcg/m3).
Fine particles, also known as PM2.5, contribute to about 30,000 deaths a year in the UK and are considered the most dangerous form of air pollution because their microscopic size allows them to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, the mother of Ella, who died aged nine and last year became the first person to have pollution listed as a cause of death in the UK, condemned the new target. She said: “The government has failed the whole nation and betrayed my daughter’s memory by proposing this incredibly weak target.”
She accused the government of ignoring the recommendation made last year after Ella’s inquest. Philip Barlow, the assistant coroner for Inner South London, urged the government to set legally binding limits based on World Health Organisation guidelines.
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The Clean Air for All campaign, launched by The Times in 2019, has also been calling for new legal limits based on WHO guidelines.
The WHO recommended in 2005 that the fine particle limit should be 10mcg/m3 and last year tightened the guideline to 5mcg/m3 following evidence that particles harm human health at much lower concentrations than previously thought.
Katie Nield, of the charity Client Earth, said: “The target date the government is proposing means that another generation will be exposed to toxic pollution far above what the world’s top scientists think is acceptable.”
Jane Burston, executive director of the Clean Air Fund, said: “I’m astounded that the government thinks it’s OK to leave us breathing dirty air for the next 18 years. Our research with Imperial College shows that meeting the [10mcg/m3] target is achievable and affordable by 2030 — ten years earlier.”
• People exposed to air pollution over a period of years are more likely to develop autoimmune diseases, according to a study conducted in Italy using a database of 81,000 men and women. Almost 10,000 had such a disease diagnosed in 2016-20. The researchers, writing in the online journal RMD Open, found that long-term exposure was associated with about a 40 per cent higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis, a 20 per cent higher risk of inflammatory bowel disease, and a 15 per cent higher risk of connective tissue diseases.
