You have a right to breathe clean air

Illegal levels of air pollution are damaging our health, reducing our quality of life and cutting lives short. Globally, 9 out of 10 people breathe polluted air but often, people are unaware of the potential health impacts of poor air quality.

Air pollution affects the health and quality of life of people living in cities across Europe on a daily basis. It aggravates breathing conditions and increases the risk of asthma attacks leading to more hospital admissions. Prolonged exposure can cause serious medical conditions, such as cancer, heart attacks and strokes.

While we are all affected, those who are the most vulnerable in our society are more at risk, especially children and older people. Exposure to air pollution can cause children to develop breathing conditions and stunted lungs.

There is also a growing body of research linking air pollution to other illnesses, including diabetes, developmental problems for children and suggested links to dementia.

We spoke to Dr Zoe Williams to find out more about how air pollution impacts our bodies, our children and our long-term health.

We're leading the legal fight for clean air.

Ten years ago, few people recognised air pollution as a public health emergency in Europe.

Of course, cities such as London had experienced issues with smog in the past. But the dangers of modern-day, invisible air pollution were rarely highlighted in mainstream media. Although it was still damaging people’s health, it was low on the public agenda.

The health impacts of air pollution were something James Thornton was keenly aware of when he moved to London and set up ClientEarth. He discovered that air quality levels were far exceeding legal limits. He decided something needed to be done – and knew ClientEarth’s lawyers were the right team to do it.

Our fight for cleaner air in the UK.

After a five year legal battle, in April 2015, ClientEarth won a Supreme Court ruling against the government which ordered the UK Government to start work on a comprehensive plan to meet pollution limits as soon as possible.

However, those plans were so poor that ClientEarth took the government back to the High Court.

Again, we proved in the courts that the UK government was failing in its legal duty to protect us from toxic air pollution, forcing it to produce two new air quality plans.

We are now seeing the start of long-awaited change in the UK. Concrete measures to get that illegal air pollution down – Clean Air Zones (CAZs) – are increasingly becoming a reality across the UK. CAZs are the most effective way to quickly reduce illegal and harmful levels of air pollution in urban areas.

But the government is not acting fast enough. Air pollution is an invisible killer and we have the solutions at our fingertips. A national network of Clean Air Zones would quickly remove the most polluting vehicles from our roads and slash levels of nitrogen dioxide – a lethal pollutant. That’s why we’re still fighting for a plan fit to tackle this public health crisis.