Vehicular air pollution and asthma: implications for education for health and environmental sustainability

Abstract

Studies show a direct relationship between occurrence of asthma and increases of particulate matter in the air. Private transportation is found to be a significant contributor to this problem. The objective of this article is to explore this link between air pollution, asthma and vehicular dependency in order to provide recommendations for health and transport policy. This article focuses on the survey of literature on the relationship between vehicular air pollution and asthma; combining it with the literature on vehicular dependency or 'car culture' in the global context and in The Netherlands. This article exposes the imbalance of power between patient groups and polluting industries, and the government failure to protect the weaker party can be explained by corporate pressures. It will be argued that since air pollution is tied to the corporate support for the car industry and vested interests in promoting a 'car culture', strategic policy that claims to be concerned with public health should explicitly link the present pattern of mobility to public health. This article concludes with a recommendation for raising environmental health awareness by explicitly linking vehicular dependency to respiratory health through a combination of holistic and citizenship education.

Effect of Lockdown Measures on Atmospheric Nitrogen Dioxide during SARS-CoV-2 in Spain

“…In addition, the high levels of motor vehicle activity [5] and their inappropriate use [6] cause an increase of air pollutants in city centers [7]. As a result, quality of life and human health is worsening specifically in cardiovascular, neurological, and respiratory diseases [8][9][10] and even results in higher mortality rates [11,12]. As a consequence of this, developed and developing countries are more and more attentive to urban air quality, developing guidelines, directives and standards to inform and support policymakers [13,14] to reduce the health impacts of air pollution.…”

Environmental Attitude of Drivers in Alimosho Local Government Area, Lagos, Nigeria

“…BRT, LAGBUS buses) is a way of reducing vehicle emission. This may be attributed to the fact that at 40, an average Lagosian owns a car as a necessity as pointed out by Kopnina (2017) and so will likely not be in support, trying as much as possible to align his or her behaviour with the attitude as implied by DFT (2013) and argued by Hockenbury & Hockenbury (2007).…”

“…This study aims to fill these gaps by focusing on the environmental effects of vehicle emissions in relation to the drivers who are responsible for the state and conditions of their vehicles. In addition to their environmental attitudes, the role of drivers according to Axsen & Sovacool (2019) and Kopnina (2017) in low carbon transport mobility cannot be overemphasized. This study evaluated the relationship between the attitude of drivers and vehicle emission and the findings of this study will lead to a better decision making process by the transportation authorities on drivers' willingness and reactions towards transport policies.…”