Air pollution is well documented to cause adverse health effects in the population. Epidemiological/toxicological studies have demonstrated that air pollution is associated with various adverse health outcomes, ranging from mortality to subclinical respiratory symptoms. Classical epidemiological studies of the health effects of air pollution are typically retrospective. In order to assess the effectiveness of any public health messages or interventions in a timely manner there is a need to be able to systematically detect any health effects occurring in real-time. The UK syndromic surveillance systems are coordinated by Public Health England (PHE) and are used to monitor infectious diseases in real-time. This study is the first in the UK to explore whether syndromic surveillance systems can detect public health impacts associated with air pollution events.
Objective: This study examined whether the current UK real-time syndromic surveillance systems can detect public health impacts associated with air pollution events such as fires and ambient air pollution episodes.