On 15 June, the WCRAQ Education working party addressed the need for a holistic government approach to address air pollution in medical training, schools, and across the general public.
Trewin Restorick, Founder of Hubbub UK, chaired the WCRAQ Education working party meeting of Tuesday (15 June) this week. The guest speakers, Larissa Lockwood, Global Action Plan, Anna Moore, Royal London Hospital, and Martin Crabbe, London Sustainable Schools Forum, addressed how to communicate air pollution issues to three major audiences: the general public, healthcare professionals, and schools.
Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air at Global Action Plan, discussed how Clean Air Day has been an important element in creating public awareness of air pollution, as well as creating opportunities to do something about it.
Lockwood outlined that since Clean Air Day as launched in 2017, Global Action Plan have been following the basic model of behaviour change: capability (skills and knowledge); motivation (emotional factors); opportunity (availability). Previous Clean Air Days have been focussed on educating the public about the effect air pollution has on our health, with the positive spin on how we can protect ourselves. However, this Clean Air Day is all about doing things, such as running sessions in schools, cycling to work, and closing roads in the city centres.
‘This year, for Clean Air Day, we want people to do something and support and call for change. There is only so far that organisations and the public can go towards tackling air pollution. We need physical, financial, and environmental support to help people emit less,’ Larissa Lockwood commented.
For Clean Air Day 2021, WCRAQ are holding a conference for MPs to hear from Larissa Lockwood, our newly-appointed Youth Ambassador Charlotte Smith of the EV Thank You campaign, Professor Sir Stephen Holgate of the University of Southampton, Professor Jonathan Grigg of Queen Mary University London, David Davies of PACTS, and Jason Airey, MD of CMS SupaTrak.
It is vital that policymakers are informed of the widespread impact of air pollution, with 40,000 people in the UK dying prematurely every year due to breathing clean air. The implementation of a holistic government approach towards including air pollution in medical and school curriculums are crucial to public health.
Anna Moore, Education Fellow and Respiratory Registrar at the Royal London Hospital, highlighted that although air pollution poses a major, widespread risk to public health, information about air pollution is generally omitted from the training of healthcare professionals, because of the distinction between illness and public health.
Martin Crabbe, Chair of London Sustainable Schools Forum and Geography Teacher at Glebe School, London Borough of Bromley, addressed that sustainability is noticeably absent from our education system, which means a holistic approach cannot be taken my schools to address pressing issues such as climate change.
Thank you to each of our guest speakers, who are doing all they can to spread awareness of air pollution, the killer of 7 million people worldwide every year.
