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Health

The link between health and environment

The state of the environment and the condition of our health is intimately connected. The rise of motorised transport has set emissions of air pollutants rocketing and the width of our waistlines expanding. As the car has become the dominant form of transport, our streets and roads have become more hazardous, resulting in greater numbers of fatalities and injuries; the greatest share among pedestrians and cyclists. In the face of increasing traffic danger many potential pedestrians and cyclists have opted to take refuge in the safety of their own car. The result is a transport system heavily reliant on polluting fossil fuels which presents little opportunity for physical activity and contributes to increasing global levels of obesity.

The Merseyside Transport Partnership is committed to improving the impact of transport on both health and the environment. Our Road Safety Strategy includes measures designed to provide a safe highway network for all users, paying particular attention to the most vulnerable users. The Active Travel Strategy aims to make walking and cycling more accessible options for all and to promote the health benefits. Other initiatives, such as Low Emission Strategies, are intended to reduce the environmental impact of trips made by car.

Decade of Health & Wellbeing

Liverpool Primary Care Trust launched the Decade of Health & Wellbeing on 17th January 2011, it marked the start of a 10 year programme to improve the health of Liverpool residents.

There are five ways to achieve health and wellbeing have been set out as;

• Connect - with others, at home, at work, in your community. During 2010, the people of Liverpool connected through neighbourhood activity days, festivals, multi-cultural events, play projects and all kinds of community gatherings.
• Be active - an active lifestyle not only keeps our bodies healthy, but makes us feel good as well. 2010 saw a huge range of activities on offer from kayaking to climbing, cycling to swimming, and everything in between. There was something for everyone, whatever their fitness level.
• Keep learning - trying something new can help keep our minds and our lives active. Many of you across Merseyside had a go at something completely different, be it signing up for a reading group, joining a drama class, taking part in a workshop or getting creative with arts and crafts.
• Give - giving to others makes us feel better, and 2010 could not have happened without the generosity of the people of Liverpool. By giving their time, expertise and energy, they helped ont only to organise events, but make them successful by turning up and joining in. Thousands also made the most of sponsored events such as Race for Life to raise cash for good causes.
• Take notice - It's easy to rush through our busy lives without pausing for thought. A key feature of 2010 was to help people notice how special our environment is, at all levels, through a packed cultural calender, tours of historic buildings, and nature walks in our beautiful parks.

For more information on the Decade of Health & Wellbeing visit www.2020healthandwellbeing.org.uk

CATCH (Clean Accessible Travel for Community Health) project

Merseytravel is committed to promoting sustainable mobility and improving air quality. Between 2002 and 2005 the CATCH project aimed to change policy and implement change through the purchase of cleaner vehicles, the 'cleaning up' of existing vehicles and various sustainable mobility measures and monitoring. Funded through the European Commissions (EC) Life-Environment Programme, this project and other similar projects, are extremely useful and are used in promotion of best practice in the EC. CATCH was implemented in Liverpool (UK), Suceava (Romania) and Potenza (Italy).

CATCH aimed to:

• promote sustainable mobility (walking, cycling and public transport).
• develop an innovative, partnership-based approach to transport-related environment policy in Liverpool.
• improve urban air quality e.g. 88 particulate traps fitted to Arriva buses, 16 buses fitted with traps and NO_x reducing equipment, and a new diesel-electric hybrid bus service in Liverpool city centre.
• contribute to the EC's Kyoto commitments.
• develop an innovative pollution monitoring kit
• disseminate results and promote best practice.
• transfer knowledge and experience to other EU member states and Candidate Countries.