Clean Air Day 2021 Environmental health risks

Clean Air Day 2021 – Protect our children from the largest environmental health risk in the UK

What is Clean Air Day?

Clean Air Day is the UK’s largest air pollution campaign and has been introduced by the Global Action Plan to help educate and encourage the population to reduce emissions and improve air quality. This year the Clean Air Day campaign focuses on protecting children’s health from air pollution, as they are most vulnerable to its impacts, as well as educating them on the issue.

So, what is air pollution?

Air pollution is made up of a number of substances that are released into the air which can be harmful to peoples health. Some examples of the damaging pollutants are:

Carbon monoxide (burning gas, oil, coal and wood)
Nitrogen Dioxide (diesel vehicles and domestic heating)
Sulphur Dioxide (coal & oil power stations, boilers and stoves)

Air pollution is known for being the largest environmental health risk in the UK and causes up to 36,000 deaths a year*

Effects of air pollution

Everyone is exposed to air pollution as emissions are released from both indoor and outdoor substances. The main impacts of poor air quality are:

Cardiovascular and Respiratory diseases such as; lung cancer
Mental health issues
Effects on dementia
Asthma

Although air pollution affects everyone of all ages, children, in particular, are most at risk. For example:

Early childhood development (pregnancy & foetal growth)
Poor lung development as their organs are still growing
Spending more time outside exposes them to bad air quality.

Did you know reducing air pollution could boost children’s learning ability by 6%?*

Top tips

We are passionate about creating solutions that can make a real difference to communities, so here are our top tips to support you.

Tips to improve outdoor air quality:

Everyone is exposed to outdoor air pollution, it’s where you live, work and spend your free time. There are many actions people can take to reduce their exposure and contribution to air pollution, some examples are:

Use cars less, plan for active travel and public transport.
Walk or cycle on your commute to work, school or local areas.
Make less deliveries, as this creates more vehicles on the road meaning more traffic and pollution.

Tips to improve indoor air quality:

As we are spending more time at home due to the pandemic, it’s never been more important to improve our indoor air quality, here are a few ways you can contribute:

Ventilation: opening doors and windows not only helps you keep productive when working from home but helps to improve air quality.
Use unscented candles as they release fewer pollutants, but reducing burning candles all together is advised.
Electrical cooking appliances are better than gas as it reduces Nitrogen Dioxide levels (NO2)

What small changes can you introduce to make a big difference?

How KCS Procurement Services has contributed to reducing air pollution?

At KCS Procurement Services we are committed to doing our bit to reduce air pollution and play a part in the wider environmental agenda.

We are proud to be partnering with Kent County Council on an initiative in place to help reduce air pollution and cut carbon emissions - the Kent Realising Electric Vans Scheme (Kent REVS).

This scheme has been introduced to companies around Kent and Medway to encourage the use of electric vehicles. Kent REVS offers the opportunity to ‘try for free’ an electric van for two months, with the ultimate aim being that organisations will convert to electric for the long term, which will contribute to reducing air pollution and decreasing emissions.

To find out more or if you are interested in the scheme, follow the link below:

Kent REVS up for Cleaner Air | News | Commercial Services Group

We also have a range of frameworks which will help drive the reduction of carbon emissions, including electric vehicle charging points and waste management. To find out about all of our frameworks and services download a copy of our catalogue today kcs4ps.co.uk/frameworks

About Clean Air Day
How Does Pollution Affect Humans? (theworldcounts.com) How Air Pollution Affects Children’s Health – Smart Air (smartairfilters.com)
Clean Air Day: 7 Simple Tips to Tackle Indoor Air Pollution (housebeautiful.com)
10 things you can do to help reduce air pollution today - Sustrans.org.uk
Health matters: air pollution - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Save the date! Clean Air Day 2021 - 17 June
Reducing air pollution 'could boost children's learning ability by 6%'; ITV News Granada