Air pollution is the biggest threat to health – EEA Report

Air pollution in Europe is still too high. This is clear from the European Commission 's 2018 report on air quality, published Monday by the European Environment Agency (EEA). According to the Copenhagen – based agency, air pollution is the leading cause of premature death in 41 European countries. It is based on data from more than 2,500 measuring stations throughout Europe. Despite the slow progress, the limits of the European Union and the World Health Organization would be exceeded in many places.

For 2015, researchers calculated about 442,000 premature deaths related to air pollution, of which about 391,000 in the 28 EU Member States. The causes include fine dust, tropospheric ozone, and nitrogen dioxide. They cause or aggravate respiratory problems, cardiovascular disease or cancer, resulting in a reduction in life span, according to the EEE.

The report is the main source of pollution

"Road emissions are often worse than those from other sources," said Hans Bruyninckx, director of the EEA. They would be ejected close to the ground and would often occur in cities and therefore close to humans. But not only are people affected. Air pollution can also damage ecosystems, affect soils, forests, lakes and rivers and reduce yields.

In Germany, researchers badume that a polluted environment has resulted in the death of more than 62,000 people. That's just about every fifteen deaths, as a large research team writes in a report of more than 50 pages in the newspaper "The Lancet". 44,000 of these deaths were caused by outdoor air pollution.

Seven million people worldwide are dying because they breathe stale air. In more than half of them, particles are the triggering factor in fires of cooking zones. This is the result of a global study published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in May this year. According to this, 90% of the world's population is exposed to polluted air.

Good news from EEA researchers: tighter control of air pollution and improved standards for emissions from vehicles, industry and production. have already halved the number of premature deaths since 1990.