Air pollution dogged humanity since we first sat round a camp fire. Accounts from Medieval London describe the polluted air at the time but it's astonishing that the health impacts were not recognised until the disaster of the 1952 smog. Although the air in the UK is cleaner today, globally, many millions are living in very polluted conditions. Despite the recognition of air pollution health impacts, many people in the UK live in areas that do not meet legal limits. Looking to the future, the growing evidence of life-course impacts and the lack of a zero effects threshold should prompt us to change the way that we manage air pollution.
Dr Gary Fuller is an air pollution scientist at Imperial College London. He led the development of the London Air Quality Network to become Europe's most advanced regional measurement network. His research interests focus on the urban air pollution sources; how these are changing and how they affect our health. Gary is keen to ensure that air pollution is better understood by the public and policy makers. He is a member of Defra's Air Quality Expert Group and was recently appointed as one of the UKRI / Met Office Clean Air Champions. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper. His air pollution book, "The Invisible Killer" is published by Melville House.