Dr Sarah Moller and Professor Ally Lewis, both from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of York, have contributed their expertise to a major new report from the Royal College of Physicians that calls for the UK to treat air quality as a public health issue. 

The report, A breath of fresh air: responding to the health challenges of modern air pollution, highlights the latest evidence on the health impacts of air pollution throughout the human life course and outlines actions to reduce its burden.

In recent years, scientific understanding has expanded to show that air pollution is linked not only to respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, but also to a wide range of other health issues. Its effects begin before birth and extend into old age, with growing evidence linking it to diseases such as dementia.

Dr Moller and Professor Lewis contributed to chapters 3.4 and 3.5 of the report, which explore how future air quality policies could be shaped using new thinking and interdisciplinary approaches. 

One of their key messages is that current air quality limit values, which are used to assess and regulate pollution in the UK, may not be driving sufficient action in areas outside pollution hotspots – such as big cities like London. For example, while cities like York fall within legal air quality limits, the system offers little incentive for continuous improvement. By revisiting how standards are set, there is an opportunity to support more ambitious local action.

The report also highlights the role of industry-led innovation. In collaboration with construction equipment manufacturer JCB, research at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science demonstrates how hydrogen-specific combustion engines can reduce nitrogen dioxide emissions by over 99% compared to the cleanest legal diesel engines. 

In this case, innovation was driven by both the need to decarbonise, reduce air pollution emissions, and customer demand for cleaner technologies.

“Air pollution is a ‘wicked problem’ resulting from multiple, highly interconnected systems such as transport, energy and urban environments, which are themselves highly dependent on people and the social systems that influence how they behave,” explains Dr Sarah Moller.

A major theme in the NCAS contribution to the RCP report is the importance of recognising the complex, interconnected systems that give rise to air pollution. 

Air pollution models often simplify these systems to capture only well-understood relationships, but we need tools that will help policymakers consider wider, cross-cutting, and more uncertain interactions.

Using approaches such as systems mapping, decision-makers can better anticipate unintended consequences, understand why certain policies succeed or fail, and identify interventions that are more likely to deliver long-term benefits. Promoting active travel results in impacts such as a reduction in the volume of traffic on roads, which then make it more attractive to engage in active travel. This and other feedbacks mean that the initial promotion drives greater improvements in air pollution and public health than a simple assessment would suggest.

Dr Moller, who was seconded to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs between 2019 and 2021, has worked extensively on integrating systems thinking into UK environmental policy.

Other NCAS research areas also feature in the RCP report, including indoor air quality, the health effects of particulate matter, the use of small sensors for air pollution monitoring, air quality inequalities, net zero co-benefits, and pollution modelling – underlining NCAS’s broad contribution to tackling this critical public health issue.