The Guardian - 21.08.2019

Section:GDN 1N PaGe:2 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 19:40 cYanmaGentaYellowbl

• The Guardian Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019

News

Journal Outside G

Opinions and ideas

G2 Centre pullout

Features and arts

Inside 21/8/

Four sections every weekday

Contact

For missing sections call 0800 839 100.

For individual departments, call the Guardian

switchboard: 020 3353 2000.

For the Readers’ editor (corrections

&  clarifi cations on specifi c editorial content), call

020 3353 4736 between 10am and 1pm UK time

Monday to Friday excluding public holidays, or

email [email protected].

Letters for publication should be sent to

[email protected] or the

address on the letters page.

Guardian News & Media, Kings Place, 90 York Way,

London N1 9GU. 020-3353 2000. Fax 020-7837 2114.

In Manchester: Centurion House, 129 Deansgate,

Manchester M3 3WR. Telephone Sales: 020-7611 9000.

The Guardian lists links to third-party websites, but

does not endorse them or guarantee their authenticity

or accuracy. Back issues from Historic Newspapers:

0870-165 1470 guardian.backissuenewspapers.co.uk.

Published by Guardian News & Media, Kings Place,

90 York Way, London N1 9GU, and at Centurion House,

129 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WR. Printed at Reach

Watford Limited, St Albans Road, Watford, Herts

WD24 7RG; Reach Oldham Limited, Hollinwood Avenue,

Chadderton, Oldham OL9 8EP; Reach Saltire Ltd,

110 Fifty Pitches Place, Glasgow G51 4EA; and by

Irish Times Print Facility, 4080 Kingswood Road,

Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24. No. 53,805,

Wednesday 21 August 2019. Registered as a newspaper

at the Post Office ISSN 0261-3077.

News and Sport

 Can’t abide Corbyn?

Learn from the

moral of Ed Miliband

Aditya Chakrabortty

Page 1

 There is more to

lesbians than our

sex lives, actually

Hannah Jane Parkinson

Page 4

Education gap

Poorest pupils twice as

likely to fail GCSE maths

as wealthier classmates

Page 5

Love Island’s Ovie Soko

Reality show’s breakout

star isn’t too famous to be

embarrassed by his mum

Page 4

Zero tolerance

Manchester United’s

‘disgust’ at racist

abuse of Paul Pogba

Page 40

Feathers fl ying

The wom en who keep

the Notting Hill carnival’s

mas tradition alive

Page 10

Weather

Page 34

Cartoon

Journal, page 5

Cryptic crossword

Back of Journal

Quick crossword

Back of G

NEWSPAPERS

SUPPORT

RECYCLING

The recycled paper content of UK newspapers

in 2017 was 64.6%^

Patrick Butler

Social policy editor

Thousands of homeless children are

growing up in cheaply converted ship-

ping containers and cramped rooms

in former offi ce blocks, putting their

health and wellbeing at serious risk,

according to the Children’s Commis-

sioner for England.

Anne Longfi eld said it was a scan-

dal that at least 210,000 youngsters

in homeless families in England were

put up by councils in temporary hous-

ing and bed and breakfasts, or forced

to “sofa surf ” , often for long periods.

Such accommodation could be

unsafe, disruptive and overcrowded,

with no room for children to play or do

homework. It was frequently in poor

condition, far from family support net-

works and schools, and often found in

isolated locations dogged by crime.

“Something has gone very wrong

with our housing system when

people in the UK have a personality

disorder at any one time.

Prof Andrey Rzhetsky , a co-author

of the research at the University of

Chicago, said the team carried out

the work after fi nding genetics d id

not fully explain why some people had

these conditions and others did not.

Writing in the journal P LOS Biology ,

Rzhetsky and colleagues explained

how they used a rather crude approach

when they fi rst examined possible

links to air pollution. Insurance data

for 151 million people collected from

2003 to 2013 was used to explore the

rates of particular mental disorders in

counties across the US. This was then

analysed alongside the average level

of air pollution in each county.

T he team found the rate for bipolar

disorder was 27% higher for counties

in the bottom seventh for air quality

compared with those in the top sev-

enth , once factors including age, sex,

poverty levels in the county and aver-

age income were taken into account.

A  tentative link was also seen for

depression and air pollution.

However, this analysis was based on

average air pollution levels over large

areas. What’s more, the rates of psy-

chiatric conditions m ay not refl ect the

situation for low-income people who

may be less likely to have insurance.

To delve deeper, the team looked

at air pollution data from Denmark,

collected on a scale of 1 sq km. They

looked at air pollution exposure for the

fi rst 10 years in the life of 1.4 million

people born and living in the country

between 1979 and the end of 2002.

Levels of 14 pollutants were consid-

ered (compared with the 87 considered

in the US part of the study) and used to

provide a measure of overall air pollu-

tion exposure over those years.

The team then explored subsequent

diagnoses for bipolar disorder, schiz-

ophrenia, personality disorder and

depression up to the end of 2016. Once

factors including age, sex and socio-

economic status were considered, the

team found the rates of all four mental

disorders were higher among people

who had greater exposure to overall

air pollution in childhood.

When participants were split into

seven equal-sized groups, based on

the air they were exposed to until the

age of 10, they found the bottom sev-

enth (who experienced the worst air)

had 29%, 148%, 51% and 162% higher

rates for bipolar, schizophrenia,

depression and personality disorder

respectively than the top seventh.

The team suggested a number of

explanations for how air pollution

aff ects mental health , pointing to ani-

mal studies that suggested it could

trigger infl ammation in the respir-

atory tract that le d to infl ammation

across the body, including the brain.

Another suggestion was that air pol-

lutants travelled from the nose to the

brain where they accumulated, caus-

ing infl ammation and damage.

If the links are confi rmed, they

could – counterintuitively – off er some

cause for hope. “Unlike genetic predis-

position, environment is something

we can change,” said Rzhetsky.

However, the research has limit-

ations: the fi ndings do not prove that

air pollution drives the development

of these conditions, while the analyses

do not take into account the infl uence

of many factors known to aff ect mental

health, including family history of

psychiatric problems or bullying.

Dr Ioannis Bakolis , an expert in bio-

statistics from King’s College London,

said the study added to evidence of

a possible link between air pollution

and mental health disorders. “While

causation cannot be proved, this work

suggests substantial morbidity from

mental disorders could be avoided

with improved air quality,” he said.

He said there was plenty of evi-

dence air pollution could harm many

aspects of health, adding that meas-

ures such as car-free zones should be

given attention.

children are growing up in B&Bs, ship-

ping containers and old offi ce blocks,”

said Longfi eld. “It is a scandal that a

country as prosperous as ours is leav-

ing tens of thousands of families in

temporary accommodation for long

periods of time, or to sofa surf.”

Launching a report into fam-

ily homelessness , she said the main

causes were the lack of aff ordable

housing and the fi nancial instability

created by welfare reforms and cuts

such as universal credit and the four-

year freeze on housing benefi t.

The report cites the case of Lucy, a

homeless single mother in her early

20s, who was placed in a converted

offi ce block an hour away from her

local area in London. The room had

no basic furniture. Supposedly an

emergency placement, she and her

two-year-old son ended up staying

for 11 months.

“They put me in a small room in an

offi ce block which had been converted

into fl ats. It was in an industrial estate

in the middle of nowhere. The cars and

lorries would whizz round really fast.

It was very noisy and it felt unsafe to

walk to the shops,” Lucy said.

The NSPCC said such conditions

were harmful to children. “These

descriptions of poky, dangerous con-

ditions belong in a Dickensian novel,

but instead they paint a picture of life

in the 21st century for many fami-

lies,” said the charity’s head of policy

Almudena Lara.

The report says one in 10 of all new

homes created in England and Wales

since 2016 were in former offi ce blocks,

rising to over half of new homes in hot-

spots such as Harlow in Essex.

Many of the conversions fail to meet

offi cial size standards for a one bed-

room home, which is 37 sq meters. The

report cites single room fl ats of 18 sq

meters , and one of just 13 sq metres

• barely larger than a parking space.
  Converted shipping containers are
  increasingly used by councils to pro-
  vide temporary accommodation for
  homeless families, and while some
  families prefer them to B&Bs because
  they have their own bathroom and
  kitchen, they are regarded as too hot
  in summer and too cold in winter.
  The report says 124,000 home-
  less children were offi cially recorded
  as living in temporary accommoda-
  tion in England at the end of 2018, an
  80% increase since 2010. On top of
  this, it calculates there were 92,
  homeless youngsters in families that
  “sofa-surfed” with friends or relatives.
  The Local Government Association
  said severe lack of social rented homes
  available in which to house families
  meant councils had “no choice” but
  to place households into temporary
  accommodation, including – in emer-
  gencies – B&Bs.
  A government spokesperson said:
  “No child should ever be without a roof
  over their head, and we are working to
  ensure all families have a safe place
  to stay.”

Homeless children forced

to live in old offi ce blocks

Study suggests link

between pollution

and mental illness

 Continued from page 1

▼Shipping containers converted to

residential use for the homeless in

Brighton – they are often too cold or

too hot PHOTOGRAPH: DOMINIC DIBBS/ALAMY

RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws