Outdoor air pollution is a significant risk to public health, with an estimated 1,800 to 2,700 deaths in Scotland each year attributed to long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution. Health problems can occur because of short-term exposure to poor air quality as well, and poor air quality overall is a major contributor to preventable ill health. People living in areas with higher pollutant concentrations are more likely to experience a variety of health problems, including respiratory conditions, heart conditions, birth complications, cancers, and overall mortality.
High levels of pollutant exposure can compound other health risk factors, contributing to or worsening health inequality: people on low income in Scotland, for instance, are more likely to experience respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, low birthweight, and all-cause mortality.
Scotland has a long history of health inequality, and as we detail through this report, notable inequalities in air pollutant exposure. In particular, we explore significant markers of potential socioeconomic inequality, including income deprivation, ethnicity, disability, and housing tenure.
This leads us to another question: how does the policy landscape in Scotland address air quality, and what can be done to further improve these inequalities? Most emissions are derived from road transport, industry, and heating in domestic, commercial, or institutional spaces. This means that targeted strategy across these sectors can effectively reduce inequalities in pollutant exposure and inequalities in health overall.
This report examines the relationship between markers of socioeconomic inequality and air quality in urban areas, discusses Scotland’s air quality policy landscape, and explores opportunities for Scottish policy to improve these inequalities further.
Authors
Allison is a Fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute. She specialises in health, socioeconomic inequality and labour market dynamics.
Emma Congreve is Principal Knowledge Exchange Fellow and Deputy Director at the Fraser of Allander Institute. Emma's work at the Institute is focussed on policy analysis, covering a wide range of areas of social and economic policy. Emma is an experienced economist and has previously held roles as a senior economist at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and as an economic adviser within the Scottish Government.