10 - All respiratory deaths

Summary

This category contains all deaths due to diseases of the respiratory system which uses the airways, lungs and respiratory muscles to move air into and out of the body.

There are nearly two million deaths in this category with just over half being due to pneumonia.

In comparing this map to that of risk of death from cardiovascular disease it is clear that there is a far more important urban–rural rather than north–south divide to respiratory disease prevalence. Rates are lowest by the coast, most notably by the southern and Anglia coasts, but rates are also low in rural Scotland.

In contrast, it is within cities, and in particular those northern and Scottish cities that had cotton and jute mills, where rates are highest. Men and women who worked in such environments in their youth before almost all the mills closed down were particularly at risk, even in old age. People who have recently arrived from abroad from similar industrial environments are at risk within particular parts of cities such as London and Birmingham.

Rates are also higher in areas where coal mining was common – in south Wales, and the Yorkshire, Nottingham, north east and Scottish coalfields. People who did not work in these industries are far more likely to have migrated over the course of their lifetimes to the coast of southern England. Such long-term migratory moves, rather than anything to do with southern rural air, are likely to matter most here. Air pollution in cities was often high not only due to industry, but in the past from coal fires, and currently from motor vehicles.

These industrial and migratory factors aside, smoking is probably the single most important contributory factor to the geographical distribution of respiratory deaths.