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Austerity, deregulation and government law-breaking mean there is little chance of reducing the annual death toll from pollution in the near future argues Will McMahon
BBC Five Live Investigates yesterday covered our new report, by Professor Steve Tombs, highlighting the lack of effective regulation of pollution, food safety and workplace health and safety standards in the UK.
The programme looked at the health risks associated with a decline in food hygiene and other inspections.
Between 2004 and 2015, at Local Authority level, there were:
The Adam Smith Institute is not capable of serious debate, Professor Steve Tombs writes in response to misplaced criticism of his latest briefing
Thousands of British citizens are dying needlessly each year because of the government’s failure to tackle food poisoning, health and safety breaches and pollution, a new report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies claims today. The report – Better Regulation: Better for whom? – by Professor Steve Tombs of The Open University, argues that lax regulation and weak enforcement has created avoidable business-generated, state-facilitated ‘social murder’.
This Briefing by Professor Steve Tombs places the spotlight on the lack of effective regulation of pollution, food safety and workplace health and safety standards in the UK.
An estimated 29,000 deaths each year in the UK are attributable to the effects of airborne pollution. Some one million cases of foodborne illness in the UK each year result in 20,000 hospital admissions and 500 deaths. Around 50,000 people die each year as a result of injuries or health problems originating in the workplace.
At Prime Minister's Questions today, David Cameron was pressed on why he and London Mayor Boris Johnson have been lobbying the EU to weaken plans to reduce air pollution and improve air quality. The question came from Labour MP Geraint Davies.
Mr Davies said:
The Independent reports on a new study published in The Lancet, which found that current air quality rules might not be enough to protect against pollution-related illnesses.
The study estimates that for every 5 micrograms per cubic metre increase in annual exposure to fine-particle pollution, the risk of dying from natural causes rises by 7 per cent.
This briefing focuses on the human costs of air pollution and failed attempts to adequately regulate and control such harm. In his report, Professor Reece Walters highlights the fact that an estimated 24,000 British residents die prematurely every year and thousands more are hospitalised, because of air pollution. Furthermore, the European Union is currently preparing a legal case against the British government for repeatedly breaching pollution levels.
