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Notts urged to make pledge for Clean Air Day on 15 June

The County Council is encouraging residents to make a pledge to improve the air quality around them on 15 June, Clean Air Day.

It is estimated that air pollution is responsible for around 5% of all adult deaths in Nottinghamshire each year, with evidence that air pollution affects health. This can cause conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, lung cancer and exacerbate asthma.

While air pollution can be harmful to everyone, it particularly affects people living in more polluted areas, those who are exposed to higher levels of air pollution in their day to day lives, and those who are more prone to health problems caused by air pollution.

Improving the air quality across Nottinghamshire, will have a direct impact on improving the health residents. The council is working on a number of schemes to help improve air quality across the county:

• Working with residents to encourage take-up of sustainable travel options
• Installing electric vehicle charging points and providing grants to businesses for sustainable travel
• Investment in bus services including improved emission standards, electric vehicles, discounted fares for all under 22s; and multi operator tickets to help people travel between different bus operators
• Improving transport infrastructure to encourage walking, cycling and bus travel
• Supporting the car share scheme Nottinghamshare.com
• Supporting home improvements aiming to improve low energy performance rated homes.

Seeking to inspire others to make a pledge and to improve his own environmental footprint, Councillor John Doddy, Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Board at Nottinghamshire Council, is making his own pledges for Clean Air Day. Councillor Doddy said:

“Our vision is for all Nottinghamshire residents and visitors to have clean air that allows them to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

“The theme for Clean Air Day this year focuses on the impact that air pollution can have on our mind and brain health and not just our physical health.

“Breathing in poor quality air can be harmful to our health but there are simple steps we can all take to stay as healthy as possible, such as replacing car journeys with walking and cycling or turning down the temperature of our boilers.

“For Clean Air Day this year, I am pledging to cycle or walk to work and to change to an electric/hybrid vehicle at the next opportunity.

“If we all pledge to make small changes to reduce our environmental impact, not just on Clean Air Day but all year round, we can improve the quality of air that we breathe and stay as healthy as possible for longer.”

Download the Clean Air Day resource pack, including your pledge card here, use #CleanAirDay and tag @NottsCC on Twitter to show your pledge.

Find out more about Clean Air Day.