Impacts of Heathrow Airport’s Air Pollution on Residents’ Health

• Activity Number: 372 - SPEED: SPAAC SESSION IV
• Type: Topic-Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 12, 2021 : 12:00 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and the Environment
• Author(s): Jasmine Lusane* and Joseph Gayle and Sheetal Panchal and Kayli Wren and Carla Daza
• Companies: n/a and n/a and n/a and n/a and n/a
• Keywords: environmental ; air pollution; health disparities; heathrow airport; health outcomes; environmental policy

Abstract

Air pollution is responsible for thousands of deaths per year and life-limiting conditions such as asthma. Despite a decrease in pollutant levels over the last five years, Heathrow has exceeded NO2 limits set by the WHO annually.A key focus of this study is the relationship between air pollution and health indicators, specifically respiratory and cardiac ailments. The application of a Linear Regression model was expected to give good insight into the relationship between health and air pollution. A clear relationship between COPD admissions and the key air pollutants in this study, namely NO2, PM10 & PM2.5.Heart failure, hypertension and respiratory admissions also shared a positive linear relationship with these pollutants. This suggests that in areas of higher air pollution levels, there are either more cases of these ailments or residents experience more a higher severity leading to more hospital admissions.We found significant relationships between proximity to airport and health outcomes; however, we cannot conclude a causal relationship between the airport, air pollution, and heal