Air pollution is, therefore, a public health crisis. Across Wales’s towns and cities, people are breathing in levels of pollution that are harmful to their health.  Three cities in Wales—Cardiff, Newport and Swansea—reported unsafe levels of air pollution last year. Port Talbot, also in Bethan's and my region, suffers with poor air quality and has done for years. Public Health Wales have designated air pollution as a public health crisis, second only to smoking.

Recent figures show that, every year, more than 2,000 lives are cut short in Wales as a result of poor air quality. It is nothing short of a national scandal. Now, as Chair of the cross-party group on a clean air Act for Wales, the purpose of today’s short debate is to make the case for a new clean air Act and the need to create a robust legal framework that sets out ambitious approaches to improving air quality in Wales.

Now, just 60 years ago, towns and cities across the UK would be regularly smothered by smoke from coal fires burning in homes and factories. The Great Smog of 1952 infamously brought London to a halt and caused thousands of deaths in the weeks and years that followed. Annually, air pollution affects the daily life of thousands of people who have no choice but to breathe dirty air. Illegal and harmful levels of air pollution are found not only in London and Welsh cities, but also in towns like Llandeilo and Chepstow. Just because we no longer have the pea-soupers and the dense smog of Bible-black Black's Law does not mean that the air is clean.

Air pollution affects everyone, from the womb to old age. It triggers strokes, heart attacks and asthma attacks, increasing the risk of hospitalisation and death, and causes cancer. It is linked to premature births and stunted lung growth in children.

In the 1950s, when there was a lot of smog, the problem used to be that particles were big and stuck in the upper airways. Now, these nanoparticles go straight past, deep into the lungs, and even into the bloodstream, as I mentioned earlier—directly into our bloodstream. People with heart failure are a vulnerable group, and when the air quality falls, more of them are admitted to hospital. We have a clear link between air pollution levels and heart attacks, and studies have shown that particulate matter in the air is a major cause of this. We know that the health risk from breathing pollutants continues long after exposure. There is also increasing evidence that it impacts on the lungs of unborn children—even the unborn are affected by the pollution breathed in by their expectant mothers. That could scar your health throughout your life.

So, why a clean air Act? Only last week, UNICEF UK’s report 'Healthy Air for Every Child' showed that 70 per cent of UK towns and cities have levels of particulate matter pollution that exceeds World Health Organization safe limits. And across 86 per cent of the United Kingdom, nitrogen dioxide concentrations are illegally high today.  The EU limits, which are observed by UK Government and Welsh Government, are the same as the World Health Organisztion's recommended upper guideline limits for nitrogen dioxide, but are less stringent than the World Health Organisztion's threshold for other health-harmful pollutants, such as the fine particulate matter, the PM2.5s.

Now, UNICEF has said unequivocally that it is essential that Ministers include legally binding targets to meet World Health Organization air quality standards—that's the basis of this debate. We know that the current legal framework is a patchwork of different laws and devolved competencies. Many of the potential levers to improve air quality already exist, but are not used effectively because of split responsibilities between pollution sources and environmental health, both at local government and national levels. A new clean air Act for Wales would consolidate existing legislation and clarify the roles and responsibilities of Welsh Government and local government. It also gives us the opportunity to introduce more ambitious laws that are fit for the twenty-first century and that reflect the specific challenges facing Wales.