Global Action Plan today announced the theme for Clean Air Day on 16 June 2022, the UK’s largest campaign on air pollution.
The theme for this year’s campaign is: ‘Air pollution dirties every organ in your body. Take steps to improve your health this Clean Air Day.’
It highlights how air pollution moves from your lungs into your blood and can cause lung disease, heart disease, dementia and strokes, but that it is solvable and together we can do something to cut pollution to benefit our health and planet.
In its sixth year, Clean Air Day helps to drive a positive shift in public knowledge and action and is a chance to find out more about air pollution, share information and make the air cleaner and healthier for everyone.
Larissa Lockwood, Director of Clean Air at Global Action Plan, says: ‘This year’s theme highlights how air pollution can impact every organ in everybody – not just those who are vulnerable. Even though we can’t see it, air pollution impacts our health from our first breath to our last.
‘However, it is solvable, and we can all do something to cut pollution to benefit our health, planet and community. Walking short trips instead of driving is a great way to reconnect with our local community, breathe cleaner air and get some exercise. But it’s not always easy, so this Clean Air Day also ask local decision makers for what would make it easier for you to walk more and have clean air in your community.’
The primary actions the campaign will be promoting this year include:
- Talking to someone about the harms of air pollution.
- Walking those short distance trips and leaving the car at home, where you can.
- Asking local and national decision makers for what would make it easier for you to walk more and have clean air in your community.
Although Global Action Plan is communicating the primary action of walking, the charity will be promoting many other clean air actions. The prioritisation of walking enables focus on an action that can have major impact, provide a creative platform for communities and organisations to build an event around and build a new toolkit to help people walk more and ask for their area to become safe to walk.
The 2022 Clean Air Day resources in line with this theme will be published for use in mid-April. The resources enable all audiences across the UK from individuals, schools, businesses, health organisations, community groups and local authorities to demonstrate support for action on air pollution.
To stay up to date on Clean Air Day 2022, sign up to the newsletter, or for more information on how to protect your health from air pollution, head to the Clean Air Hub.
Photo by Sue Zeng
Burning of leafy biomass as an easy tool for disposal particularly in parks contributes substantially to air pollution. Parks should be made biomass free by introducing composting mechanisms.
We have a Right to Clean Air
I completely agree that walking should be prioritised. There is a lot of ‘mileage’ in getting people to become more active and walking is accessible to almost everyone. However, traffic is just one source of air pollution and I still don’t see GAP getting to grips with things like moor and peat land burning, agriculture mis-use of fertilisers, and of course domestic wood burning. For instance, I use my car (which has an air purifier) rather than walking because the wood burning in my neighbourhood makes it unpleasant and unhealth to walk. I don’t go to my allotment when I know that people are burning things there (yes I even have remote monitoring for this purpose.) GAP and Air Quality News really needs to focus more on the non-traffic sources I think.