Air Pollution as a Global Health Crisis: Policy Development & Impact

This report examines air pollution as a significant global health policy issue, particularly in the UK, where it contributes to a substantial number of deaths and chronic health conditions. It delves into the concepts of health, medical, and social sciences in relation to global health issues, highlighting the legal, economic, environmental, and organizational factors necessary for health promotion. The report also discusses the development of person-centric health and healthcare policies, emphasizing the complex interaction between air pollutants and environmental factors, leading to climate change. Furthermore, it outlines various stages of policy development and implementation, referencing strategies like the Clean Air Strategy and The National Emissions Ceiling Regulations 2018, and concludes that a combination of community-based and individual efforts, such as practicing the 3Rs principle, can effectively reduce air pollution. The report stresses the importance of reducing human exposure to pollutants and monitoring fossil fuel use to improve public health. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students' academic needs.

Health policy
Air pollution

Table of contents
 Introduction
 Air pollution as a global health policy issue
 Concepts of health, medical and social sciences in relation global health issues
 Development of person-centric health and healthcare policies
 Various stages of policy development and their implementation
 Conclusion
 References

Introduction
 The most significant cause of poor air quality in the UK is
air pollution.
 Emission of pollutants in the air is a result of continuous
burning of fossil fuels that degrade the quality of the air.
 There are around forty thousand deaths that occur each year
because of air pollution. There is also a risk of developing
chronic health conditions such as cancer and heart diseases
(Saberifar, 2021).

Air pollution as a global health policy issue
 The most polluted city in the whole of England is London.
 There is an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases
along with skin problems with increased air pollution.
 However, the No2 levels in London have significantly dropped
to 13% from 25% as a result of the Ultra low emission initiative
that was introduced in April, 2019.

Contd.
 The productivity of lands (upon which agriculture is done) and
resources is affected with rise in air pollution. The maintenance cost
of lands increases along with shortening of assets.
 In an average household in UK there is emission of 2.7 tonnes of CO2
each year.
 Air pollution affects each organ of the body in living being and is a
grave risk to human existence (Risk of COPD due to indoor air
pollution from biomass cooking fuel: a systematic review and meta-
analysis, 2018).

Contd.
 Conservation of existing resources is
necessary along with the production of new
energy sources (Skea, and du Monteuil,
2019).
 Policy implementation has significantly
reduced global Sulphuric oxide emissions
by one third and nitrogen oxide emissions
by 10%.

Concepts of health, medical and social sciences
in relation global health issues
 Legal, economical, environmental and organization
factors are necessary for promotion of health.
 Major challenges faced while implementation of
health promotion strategies are:
a. Poor health outcomes.
b. Lack of awareness about promotion policies.
c. Unavailability of human resources or future
generations.

Contd.
 The possibility of a disease turning into an outbreak
are called as global threats (Wei and et. al., 2018).
 Trade and travel industries are highly affected as a
result of these menacing outbreaks.
 Air pollution being an environmental risk for all, lead
to premature deaths and affects the agricultural sector
(Klepac and et. al., 2018).

Development of person-centric health and
healthcare policies
 The interaction between air pollutants and
environmental factors is extremely complex and is
referred to as climate change (Belay, Gelaw, Tigabu
and Raju 2021).
 Out of all pollutants, black carbon and ozone are
heavily responsible for entrapping heat inside the
atmosphere of the earth.
 Therefore, monitoring the intensity of air pollution is
extremely crucial.

Various stages of policy development and their
implementation
 Several strategies have been implemented by the
government such as Clean Air Strategy and The
National Emissions Ceiling Regulations 2018.
 A combination of both community based and individual
efforts can help reduce the concentration of pollutants
in air.
 Practising 3Rs principle has proved to be beneficial.

Conclusion
 According to the above study, it can be concluded that
implementation of strategies has helped reduce the severity of
the condition of air pollution in the UK.
 Reduced exposure of human subjects to pollutants and
monitoring the use of fossil fuels in vehicles can improve the
livelihood of the common people.

References
 Aryal, A., Harmon, A.C. and Dugas, T.R., 2021. Particulate matter air pollutants and cardiovascular disease:
Strategies for intervention. Pharmacology & therapeutics, 223, p.107890.
 Bakker, S. and Konings, R., 2018. The transition to zero-emission buses in public transport–The need for
institutional innovation. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 64, pp.204-215.
 Basagaña and et. al., 2018. Effect of public transport strikes on air pollution levels in Barcelona
(Spain). Science of the total environment, 610, pp.1076-1082.
 A new method for prediction of air pollution based on intelligent computation, 2019 [Online] Available
through: <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00500-019-04495-1 >
 Risk of COPD due to indoor air pollution from biomass cooking fuel: a systematic review and meta-analysis,
2018 [Online] Available through <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09603123.2019.1575951 >