# Pollution datasets

> Last modified: 21 Aug 2025

<div style="background-color: rgba(0, 178, 169, 0.3); padding: 5px; border-radius: 5px;"><strong>UK LLC provides datasets on primary, secondary, and flow pollutants including NO₂, PM₂.₅, NOₓ, O₃ and noise pollution, which can support research on environmental exposures and their health and equity impacts.</strong></div>
<br>

## Introduction

UK LLC pollution datasets cover both 'primary' (formed and emitted directly from particular sources) and 'secondary' (formed in the lower atmosphere by chemical reactions) pollutants. The datasets also include "flow pollutants" which are defined as "initially damaging, but are dissipated into environmental sinks with relative ease. Examples include light, noise and heat pollution, biodegradable litter and smog" (<a href="https://journals.lww.com/nohe/pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leventhall, 2004</a>).

Studies have confirmed that there are socioeconomic and racial disparities in the distribution of environmental hazards and pollution (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/125011" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mohai and Saha, 2015</a>). In addition, the impact of pollution on people's health and quality of life, including the justice implications of disproportionate environmental burdens, has prompted policy efforts (<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002764200043004003" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Taylor 2000</a>; <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102124" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brulle and Pellow, 2006</a>; <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102124" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bullard et al., 2011</a>).


Examples of health related impacts of fine particulate matter (≤2.5 micrometres in aerodynamic diameter; PM 2.5) and traffic-related pollutants (e.g. NO2) include associated increases in hospital admissions, morbidity, and mortality for cardiovascular diseases (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20458016" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brook et al., 2010</a>; <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2966" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Adar et al. 2018</a>). Studies have also found that exposure to noise above 40‒54 decibels, (depending on the source and time of day), is associated with many health conditions such as cognition problems, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular disease, and poor mental health and wellbeing (<a href="https://hero.epa.gov/hero/index.cfm/reference/details/reference_id/1371437" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Morton and Dunnette, 1994</a>; <a href="https://journals.lww.com/jhypertension/fulltext/2012/06000/the_quantitative_relationship_between_road_traffic.4.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Van Kempen and Babisch, 2012</a> ; <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2022.02.020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ang et al., 2022</a>).


The current UK LLC pollution datasets include:
- [NO2 & PM](../../environmental_datasets/pollution_datasets/air_pollution_pm25_no2/air_pollution_pm25_no2.ipynb) (2010-2019)
- [NOx, NO2 and O3](../../environmental_datasets/pollution_datasets/air_pollution_o3/air_pollution_o3.ipynb) (2018-2020)
- [Noise pollution](../../environmental_datasets/pollution_datasets/noise_pollution/noise_pollution.ipynb) (2013)

**Please click on each dataset for more information.**