Air Quality: concentrations, exposure and attitudes in Waltham Forest

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of Air Quality in Waltham Forest
In this study, for the first time King’s have used the new COMEAP (2017) health impact
recommendations to quantify the effects of air pollution on health outcomes in Waltham Forest.
Mortality impact results for long-term exposure to air pollution in Waltham Forest are all
expressed in terms of life years – the most appropriate metric for the health impact of air
pollution concentration changes over time.
Despite projected changes in air pollution concentrations between 2013 and 2020, Waltham
Forest’s population would still be losing between 172,000 to 256,000 life years as a result of
exposure to air pollution (a life year is one person living for one year). This represents as a loss of
life expectancy from birth in 2013 of around 6 to 10 months.
The population in Waltham Forest will gain around 41,000 life years, and increase life expectancy
by around 1.5 months, if air pollution concentrations improve as projected to 2020, compared
with remaining at 2013 concentrations.