FOI REF: FOI-2023-1537
You asked
I would like to request the following information:
1) How many deaths were directly involving a knife between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023
2) How many deaths were directly as a result of air pollution, vehicle contributed fron Jan 2011 to Jan 2021
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics for deaths registered in England and Wales. Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules.
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.
The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
Deaths involving sharp objects
The ICD-10 cause codes used for deaths involving sharp objects are:
- W26.0 -- Accidental contact with knife, sword, or dagger.
- X78 - Intentional self-harm by sharp object.
- X99 -- Assault by a sharp object
- Y28 - Contact with sharp object, undetermined intent
There were 244 deaths involving sharp objects, registered between January 1 2022 and December 31 2022 for England and Wales.
Air pollution
It is unusual for wider contextual factors such as exposure to pollution or air quality to be recorded among the causes of death until the coroner has concluded the investigation. Following the conclusion of the coroner's inquiry, a second and updated death registration is sometimes provided to include any new information found about the cause of death.
Deaths where air pollution was a contributing factor are coded to International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10) code Z581. Taking into account these updated registrations, we currently have 1 death registered between 2004 and 2023 where Z581 was mentioned on the death certificate.
It may be more informative to consider epidemiological studies which estimate numbers or proportions of incidence and 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.
Deaths due to combustion engine fumes
In case it is useful, we also provide figures for deaths due to combustion engine fumes. However, we suspect these deaths are not the focus of your query.
The ICD-10 cause codes used for deaths due to combustion engine fumes are:
- Y17.0 - Poisoning by and exposure to carbon monoxide from combustion engine exhaust, undetermined intent
- X67.0 - Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to carbon monoxide from combustion engine exhaust.
- X47.0 - Accidental poisoning by and exposure to carbon monoxide from combustion engine exhaust
- X88.0 - Assault by carbon monoxide from combustion engine exhaust
There were 1,136 deaths due to combustion engine fumes, registered between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2020 for England and Wales.
Notes:
Figures are for deaths registered rather than deaths occurring. For more information see our Impact of registration delays publication.
For deaths over 28 days, the Tenth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) has been used to classify cause of death in the publication. The ICD is used to translate diagnoses of diseases and other health problems from words into alphanumeric code to permit easier storage, retrieval and analysis. For deaths registered from 1 January 2022, cause of death is coded to the ICD-10 classification using MUSE 5.8 software. Deaths registered between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 were coded to the using MUSE 5.5 and previous years were coded to IRIS 4.2.3. For more information click here.
Figures for underlying cause exclude neonatal deaths as it is not possible to identify a single underlying cause for neonatal deaths or stillbirths. More information can be found in section 6 of our User Guide to Infant and Child Mortality Statistics.