UK: Asthma deaths rise 25% amid growing air pollution crisis - Sensationalist Headlines

A record number of people are dying of asthma, and experts have warned growing air pollution and a lack of basic care could be to blame. In England and Wales 1,320 people died of asthma last year, a sharp rise of more than 25% over a decade, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. The findings come amid growing concern about the air pollution crisis in the UK and mounting evidence of its impact on people’s health – particularly children and the elderly. Earlier this month a medical expert said the hospital admissions of a nine-year-old girl who died during an asthma attack showed a “striking association” with spikes in illegal levels of air pollution around her home in London. Last week an A&E doctor wrote in the Guardian about how her ward in London was overwhelmed by terrified children struggling to breathe because of dangerous levels of pollution. A separate report revealed that illegal levels of air pollution were driving up hospital admissions and GP visits. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/18/asthma-deaths-rise-25-amid-growing-air-pollution-crisis

This'll probably only get worse in the next few years. My own asthma has been slowly coming back for the past couple of years, and it feels like my regular medication is becoming increasingly ineffective in helping me breath proper.

Nothing will happen, London's pollution rates being dangerous get brought up every month and absolutely fuck all happens about it.

Very few people seem to care about it. At best people seem to be like "Yeah, the government should do something about that".

Wonder if its anything to do with the lack of support for people with asthma coupled with the weather patterns and how prevailing wind directions are less dominant (at least for coastal areas afaik), i suffer from asthma and me and most of the people who i know who suffer are mainly trigger based so mainly related to things such as animal allergies which you can only manage yourself really but mainly high pollen counts and dramatically hot or cold weather which can seriously affect people who suffer. Personally i grew out of having large reactions to the weather and only suffer badly when pollen counts are up and wind direction causes them to dramatically build up and affect people who generally are not used to dealing with them. Then also the pollution in congestion areas which i've not had to deal with for any extended periods thankfully, but i would imagine both the weather and pollen counts coupled with pollution ends in very tough situations for anyone who suffers on a frequent basis and people who have less triggers end up suffering much more than usual and from my experience having to deal with a multitude of triggers when you dont suffer frequently can cause very very serious asthma attacks which always end up with a 999 call..... and response times can be terrible depending on the time sadly All i can say if you dont take your inhaler on a regular basis then start doing so and if you dont have a preventer then try and get one asap, im lucky im not in a bad area but because of the weather im currently back on anti inflammation steroids all due to the hot weather and pollen counts this summer :|

Do gas masks help us asthmatics? Gotta prepare for the dystopian cyberfuture.

Now imagine if you had to pay for all of it, with the added bonus of the jumbo-sized costs you'd get in Freedomlandia Fuck asthma, I can't imagine how frustrating it would be

Not sure about gas masks but particulate masks do. https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/outdoor-activity/cycling/best-anti-pollution-mask-cycling-review-london-a7952771.html

Yeah but remember when the gov suggested phasing out diesel vehicles and the whole country lost its mind.

I actually don't remember that? Would be interesting to read about though. IMO new diesel passenger vehicles should be banned pretty much immediately, petrols can pick up the slack.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43885516 This is only part of the whole discussion but gives you an idea of how things were going back when it all blew up earlier in the year.

Consider wearing a mask. I've seen more and more people doing it.

I remember car makers being upset, but not much in terms of public uproar outside of Daily Mail rattling up some white van drivers.

Sucks living in a large city with asthma, my own asthma was always quite bad whenever I used to visit Manchester for weeks on end. Dundee has decent air quality, though there's plenty of case of COPD in the older generation due to all the Mills that used to operate. Most of them didn't even develop the condition until 3-4 decades after most of the the Mills shut, so even if you don't die from an asthma attack the consequences of prolonged exposure to heavy air pollution are still pretty fucking grim.