Clean Air Day - 19th June 2025
Blog by Viv Marsh, Clinical Lead for CYP Asthma Transformation
Blog by Viv Marsh, Clinical Lead for CYP Asthma Transformation and ARNS CYP Lead
This year, Clean Air Day, the UK’s largest air pollution campaign takes place on 19th June. The campaign is encouraging us all to use our voices in the campaign for clean air. Global Action Plan, who head up the campaign, report that up to 36,000 deaths occur each year in the UK as a result of air pollution.
Respiratory disease is the UK’s 3rd biggest killer but air pollution affects the whole body, not just the lungs. Awareness of the impact of poor indoor and outdoor air quality on everyone’s health is growing, and I would urge you to visit the Clean Air Hub which offers a wealth of information and resources to enable us all to be better informed and adopt simple strategies to improve our health.
The national bundle of care for children and young people with asthma highlights that healthcare professionals have a role to play when educating and supporting children and young people with asthma, and their families to understand and manage the impact of air pollution.
Discussing triggers with patients is a vital and reasonably well-established element of asthma care and, when it comes to pollution we need to be thinking about both indoor and outdoor air quality.
What can healthcare professionals do?
- Learn more about air pollution yourself
- Talk to your patients about air quality
- Sign post your patients to recommended resources that can help them to avoid, reduce or manage their exposure
- Support the Clean Air Day campaign to raise awareness amongst your colleagues and your patients
- Find out what actions are being taken in your area to improve indoor and outdoor air quality
Asthma and Lung UK continue to be a leading force in the campaign for clean air; funding research, campaigning at all levels of government, raising awareness in communities, developing resources for healthcare professionals and supporting the public and patients directly.
Suggested reading and resources:
Clean Air Day Knowledge Hub for anyone working in health
Asthma + Lung UK webpage Lowering your risk from air pollution
NICE Guidance NG70 Air Pollution: Outdoor air quality and health
NICE Guidance NG149 Indoor air quality at home
DEFRA UK air information resource, tools and air quality index
Empowering community health professionals for effective air pollution information communication Tan et al 2023