The Environment Agency has released a new report linking the environment to the health of the nation.

The report, Better Environment, Healthier People identifies flooding and climate change, poor air quality, chemicals, inequalities and outdoor recreation as major environmental priorities with the potential to impact on the health and well being of families and communities in the UK.

Dr Helen Phillips, director of Environment Agency Wales, said: "Recent flooding events demonstrate the importance of the environment in determining our health and well being."

"This report warns that warmer, stormy winters; hotter, drier summers; more flash floods; and rising sea levels due to climate change will impact on peoples’ health, with extreme events even leading to loss of life."

"Air quality in the UK is another concern - poor air quality could be shortening people's lives by six months on average and killing 32,000 people a year," she said.

• Flooding can seriously affect people’s physical and mental health
• In autumn 2000 over 10,000 homes and businesses were flooded in England and Wales - affecting 1.5million people - by 2080 this figure could rise from 1.5 million to up to 3.6m
• Floods present a much greater health risk and are far more traumatic if the water contains sewage or other contaminants. In 2002-03 5,777 properties suffered flooding from sewers

Air quality

• The EC estimates that ozone causes 1,300 premature deaths and 850 hospital admissions annually in the UK
• Forecasts suggest that by 2030 there could be thousands more ozone-related deaths and hospital admissions annually unless there is wider international action to control emissions
• Although UK and European emissions from transport and industry are being reduced, average ozone levels are expected to rise because of global emissions
• 37% of toddlers in the UK may exceed the World Health Organisation recommended daily intake for dioxins and dioxin-like substance

Inactivity

• Physical inactivity is estimated to cost around £8.2 billion/year while obesity costs some £2.5 billion/year; and
• If more people do not take part in physical activity there may be a rise in conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

"If the environment is good, people are more likely to get out and enjoy it – they are more likely to exercise and stay fit, improving their own health and well-being," Dr Helen Phillips said.

Importantly the report also identified major environmental/health improvements:

• Most emissions to air by industry have fallen substantially over the past 10 years, in large part as a result of tighter regulation
• The quantity of dioxins released from Environment Agency-regulated industrial sites fell by 95 per cent between 1990 and 2003
• The Environment Agency Pollution Inventory contains details of over 170 chemical substances released to air, rivers, estuaries, the sea and sewers from industrial processes we regulate
• Between 1990 and 2003 the energy sector cut emissions of sulphur dioxide by 74 per cent sulphur dioxide
• In 2003, in the UK the public’s exposure to radiation from nuclear sites averaged less than 0.1 per cent of the total radiation exposure from all natural and man-made sources

"We’ve worked hard to reduce pollution from the industries we regulate – but there is no room for complacency," Dr Phillips said. "There is more we need to do, working with others, to improve the environment in ways that benefit the nation's health."