FOI REF: FOI/2023/4918
You asked
Could you please provide the following data;
Death by suicide in England in 2019, 2020 and 2021
Death by air pollution between 2001 to 2021 compared to death by suicide between 2001 and 2021
Hospitalisations from air pollution between 2001 to 2021 compared to hospitalisation from suicide between 2001 to 2021.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Deaths registered due to Suicide in England
We hold the following analysis for England and Wales: Suicides in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
Table 2 of this publication provides data for England only from 1981 to 2021.
Deaths due to air pollution
Causes of death are certified in most cases by a doctor, who records the sequence of medical conditions and relevant events leading to, or contributing to, the death, based on the deceased's healthcare records and other available information, such as laboratory tests or post-mortem investigation. Some deaths are certified by a coroner who determines the causes of death following an inquest, based on all the available evidence.
It is unusual for wider contextual factors, such as exposure to pollution or air quality, to be recorded among the causes of death. One death in England and Wales in the period 2001 to 2022 had exposure to air pollution (International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10) code Z581) recorded on the death certificate.
It may be more informative to consider epidemiological studies which estimate numbers or proportions of deaths which can be attributed to exposure to pollution or poor air quality. A number of reports have been published by Public Health England (now the UK Health Security Agency) on different aspects of air pollution and health.
The UK Health Security Agency can be contacted at InformationRights@UKHSA.gov.uk
Hospitalisations due to suicide attempts and air pollution
We do not hold data on hospitalisations on suicide attempts or air pollution.
Whilst we do hold some data on hospitalisations relating to COVID-19, our data is obtained from the Hospital Episode Statistics published by NHS Digital with an approximately 3 month delay. Therefore, we use this data to determine pre-existing conditions and general health of individuals, but not to analyse recent hospitalisations.
NHS Digital would be better placed to answer your enquiry, they can be contacted at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.