Ambulances, outdoor air quality and health

There is mounting evidence to suggest that exposure to air pollution has a wide range of ill effects on people's overall health. Airborne pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter can become especially dense in highly populated areas with increased use of fuel for heat and transport. Particulate matter is made up of a mixture of organic and inorganic particles, such as dust, pollen, soot, smoke, and liquid droplets, which are suspended in the air. The World Health Organization (WHO) sees particulate matter as the most damaging pollutant, and considers outdoor air pollution as a major environmental health problem, estimated to cause 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide each year (WHO, 2018).

Long-term exposure to air pollution in the UK contributes to between 28 000 and 36 000 deaths each year, according to the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) (2018) report. The report describes the many studies of the ways that exposure to air pollution can result in cardiovascular ill health, including raised blood pressure, increased coagulation of the blood, the progression of atherosclerosis, increased risk of arrhythmias, and systemic inflammation. Children under the age of 15 and adults over 64 are most prone to the effects of air pollution, which also include respiratory damage and chronic diseases such as asthma (Policy Connect, 2018).