Canada’s new government and the regional government of Ontario yesterday announced they were establishing the world’s first National Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) with the launch of an 18-month pilot programme in Toronto. The programme will receive an investment of 30 million dollars and will serve as a model for rolling out to the rest of the country.
The AQHI gives a number between 1 and 10 (and occasionally may show as 10+) that rates air quality according to risk to health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 800,000 people die worldwide (1.4 per cent of all deaths) because of urban outdoor air pollution. In Canada, 5,900 deaths a year are linked to urban air pollution in 8 Canadian cities, and scientists suspect that poor air quality is also linked to thousands of Canadians being admitted to hospital every year.
The AQHI pilot was announced in Toronto by John Baird, Minister of the Environment and Tony Clement, Minister of Health together with representatives of Toronto Public Health.
Speaking on CTV Newsnet yesterday, Health Minister Clement said that the AQHI is:
“Basically a tool that people can use to ensure that they know the health impacts on a particular day of the amount of pollutants in the air.”
Environment Minister Baird said in a prepared statement that:
“We promised Canadians we would clean up the air we breathe and improve our health.”
“Our investment in this personal health protection tool will provide Canadians with current and forecasted local air quality information that they can use to take actions to reduce risks posed by air pollution,” he added.
Speaking at a news conference yesterday, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr David McKeown said that:
“Air quality affects different people in different ways. Healthy individuals may not notice poor air quality when it happens, where as those with particularly severe breathing and heart problems can be very sensitive to bad air.”
Canada’s AQHI is the world’s first index to show the health risks associated with the mix of pollutants present in air and to give health advice to reduce the risk.
“Air pollution has been linked to illness and death and particularly impacts our children, our elderly and people with heart and lung disease,” said Minister Clement.
The federal funding of 30 million dollars will be spread over the next four years to roll out the AQHI to medium and large communities across the country. Municipal and provincial partnerships will be key to the program’s success say the government.
The Toronto pilot project is based on successful pilots in Nova Scotia and British Columbia. Over the coming years, Environment Canada will improve its air quality forecasting capacity across the country.
The AQHI is one of a series of measure the new government of Canada has pledged to introduce to fight air pollution. In April it launched Turning the Corner: An Action Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollution under which industry will be required to halve air pollution by 2015.
Depending on how long you are exposed to air pollution, and how healthy you are, your genetic background and the quality of the air, air pollution can make it harder to breathe, irritates your eyes nose and throat, and worsens conditions like bronchitis, emphysema and asthma. It can also cause heart attacks, hear failure and other heart problems because the blood vessels can become constricted, heart rhythms change and blood clots can form.
The AQHI describes the level of health risk by showing a number and an associated health risk range: 1 to 3 is “Low health risk”, 4 to 6 is “Moderate health risk”, 7 to 10 is “High health risk” and 10+ is “Very high health risk”.
The Index will also suggest steps that people can take to reduce their exposure. As well as giving the current air quality information the AQHI will give a daily forecast.
The AQHI is a measure of the health risks from pollutants; it does not give a measure of the health effects of odour, dust, heat or humidity.
It is a measure of the combined risk posed by a number of common air pollutants which are known to be harmful. These include Ozone (O3) at ground level, particulate matter (PM2.5/PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
The plan is that as the AQHI is rolled out across the country, Canadians will be able to check their local index, for instance on a website, and take air pollution into account when they plan their day and decide how much to work or exercise outdoors.
Critics of the government say that it’s all well and good measuring the air quality, but where is the action to reduce air pollution?
Speaking to CTV yesterday, Franz Hartmann of the Toronto Environmental Alliance said:
“They have a tool to gauge the problem, but nothing, no new announcement today about how to actually clean the air.”
Click here for more information on the Toronto Pilot of the AQHI.
Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today