FOI ref: FOI/2023/4850
You asked
I would like to know:
- Deaths from vehicle emissions 2000 to 2022
- Deaths from air pollution 2000 to 2022
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration.
Causes of death are certified in most cases by a doctor, who records the sequence of medical conditions and relevant events leading to, or contributing to, the death, based on the deceased's healthcare records and other available information, such as laboratory tests or post-mortem investigation. Some deaths are certified by a coroner who determines the causes of death following an inquest, based on all the available evidence.
It is unusual for wider contextual factors, such as exposure to pollution or air quality, to be recorded among the causes of death. One death in England and Wales in the period 2001 to 2022 had exposure to air pollution (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth revision (ICD-10) code Z581) recorded on the death certificate.
It may be more informative to consider epidemiological studies which estimate numbers or proportions of deaths which can be attributed to exposure to pollution or poor air quality. A number of reports have been published by Public Health England (now the UK Health Security Agency) on different aspects of air pollution and health.
The UK Health Security Agency can be contacted at InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk.
If you would like to discuss this enquiry further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.