Air pollution contributes to over 9,000 early deaths a year in London. But how bad is it in Merton and what can we do about it?

Come and join us to find out more about the issue, hear from our expert panel and make your voice heard!

Within just five days of 2017, the annual legal limit for pollution was breached in London. The Mayor of London is now calling this a public health emergency. Breathing in polluted air has been linked to numerous health conditions from lung cancer to asthma, dementia and diabetes. It can stunt children’s lung growth and can cause people to die early.

We will be joined by an expert panel to discuss the health effects of air pollution, what policy solutions are available and how we can all play a part in tackling the problem.

And most importantly, we want to hear from you! We will be gathering insights from everyone that attends the event to feed into our consultation response to the Mayor of London's air quality plan and to feedback to Merton Council.

Outline of the event:

19.30-19.45 - What is air pollution and how does it impact our health? - Dr. Ian Mudway, Environmental Research Group, Kings College London

• Dr. Mudway is a Lecturer in Respiratory Toxicology - an expert on the health effects of air pollution – he will give an overview of what the science says, who is at risk and what we can do to protect our health.
  

19.45-20.00 – Making the legal case to tackle air pollution and what we want to see next - Andrea Lee, Healthy Air Campaigner, ClientEarth

• ClientEarth are an environmental law charity who successfully took the government to court (twice!) for their failure to produce a national plan to tackle air pollution
• Andrea works in ClientEarth’s Clean Air campaign team and also leads the Healthy Air Campaign – a coalition of health and environmental charities
• Andrea will talk about the national picture and share both legal and policy insights into how it can be solved

20.00-20.15 - What can we do about this in Merton? - Tom Walsh, CEO, Sustainable Merton

• For the past two years Sustainable Merton have been working with the Mayor of London’s office to measure air quality in Merton
• Tom will outline their findings and discuss what changes could be made in Merton to help tackle the problem

20.15-21.00 - Audience Q&A