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Air pollution in Britain takes almost two years off the lives of some 200,000 people, an official report into the problem has found.

The study, by the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), is the first to try to estimate the health burden of air pollution from human sources like traffic, power generation and manufacturing industry.

It concluded that such pollution resulted in the loss of 340,000 years of life in 2008, when the data were collected.

However, rather than being spread across the population as a whole, the committee gauged that this health burden was mostly borne by just 200,000 people, or 0.3 per cent of the population.

The report concluded:
"Given that much of the impact of air pollution on mortality is linked with cardiovascular deaths, it is ... reasonable to consider that air pollution may have made some contribution to the earlier deaths of up to 200,000 people in 2008, with an average loss of life of about two years per death affected, though that actual amount would vary between individuals."
However, the report cautioned: "This assumption remains speculative".

The report also calculated the air pollution was likely to shorten the life of a baby born today by six months on average.

Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said:
"We underestimate the effects of man-made air pollution - mainly traffic - because it is largely colorless and odorless."
On days when air pollution was high, more people with an underlying heart problem tended to be admitted to hospital, he said.

"It seems to trigger worse problems in people with heart disease rather than cause it," said the GP.

There are two theories about how air pollution caused more heart problems, he said. The first is that very small particles get deep into the lungs and cause inflammation of the artery walls. The second is that something in air pollution causes irregular heart rhythms.

Dr Elaine Vickers, from the charity Asthma UK, added:
"It's not just about mortality; it's about quality of life too."

"Two-thirds of people with asthma tell us that traffic fumes make their asthma worse and 42 per cent find that traffic fumes discourage them from walking or shopping in congested areas."

"A large proportion also tell us they are concerned about the effect that increasing vehicle fumes will have on their and their family's health in the future. They are right to be concerned, traffic pollution is damaging the lungs of millions of people with asthma."
Jon Ayres, professor of environmental and respiratory medicine, who chaired the committee, said:
"Reducing concentrations of this pollutant would lead to significant gains for public health."