With the EU voting on new air
quality rules, satellite data shows that 98% of people face pollution above
limits recommended by the World Health Organization.Urban areas such as here in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, but also in Paris or Barcelona, are particularly affected
Virtually everyone in Europe
lives in polluted towns and cities where annual average levels of fine
particulate matter are higher than the World
Health Organization's (WHO) recommended limit.
In practical terms, this means
that almost everyone on the continent is breathing bad air that
has been shown to be fatal.
Air pollution increases the
risk of respiratory and heart disease and lowers life expectancy.
"With the current levels
of air pollution, many people [are getting] sick. We know that lowering air
pollution levels reduces these numbers," said Mark
Nieuwenhuijsen, director of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health
(ISGlobal).
DW partnered with the European
Data Journalism Network to analyze satellite data from the Copernicus
Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS).
We found that in
2022, almost everyone in Europe — 98% of people — lived in areas
where the concentration of fine particulate matter, commonly abbreviated
as PM 2.5, was over the limit set by the WHO.
The WHO recommends that the
annual average concentration of fine particulate pollution should not exceed
five micrograms per cubic meter of air. A microgram is a thousand times
less than a milligram.
Pollution levels differ from
region to region in Europe. It can be especially severe in parts
of Central Europe, the Po valley in Italy and in larger metropolitan
areas, such as Athens, Barcelona and Paris.
Our analysis shows that the
most polluted regions in Europe reach annual average PM 2.5 concentrations
of about 25 micrograms per cubic meter.
High air pollution levels for
individual European cities have been reported before, but this new data
analysis offers a first Europe-wide comparison of pollution in
different regions. We show where air quality has improved and where it's gotten
worse.
We also used the data to
identify two places with similar problems but a different outlook. In
northern Italy, pollution levels are high and seem to remain so. In southern
Poland, they are also high yet appear to be falling. We looked at how mitigation
strategies are helping or not.
Fine particulate
matter is a combination of very small solid and liquid particles of
different materials and pollutants.
The pollutants are invisible
to the naked eye. They have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers,
or around 30 times thinner than a single strand of hair.
Even though there are many
other pollutants that affect human health, it's common to focus on
these kinds of particles as there is consistent scientific evidence of
their negative effect on public
health.
European air quality is
generally better than in other regions of the world.
In northern
Indian cities, such as New Delhi, Varanasi and Agra, for example, average
PM 2.5 values can get as high as 100 micrograms per cubic meter. In Europe, our
data shows pollution levels of up to 25 micrograms per cubic meter.
But even at
Europe's comparatively lower levels, pollution can have a significant
impact on people's health.
Europe's new air quality
rules would allow an annual average concentration of 10
micrograms of fine particulate matter per cubic meter of air.
The European Parliament's
Environment Committee had suggested adopting the WHO recommendations, which are
stricter at five micrograms of fine particulate matter per cubic
meter of air.
But even at 10
micrograms, it
would be stricter than the current standards, which allow annual PM 2.5
concentrations at 20 micrograms per cubic meter — four times higher than
the current WHO recommendation.
Health researchers and
environmentalists argue that the new European air quality rules should mirror
the WHO's guidelines but acknowledge that that would be a challenge.
"EU limits are not only
[about] health, they're also about economic arguments, [whereas] the
WHO limits are made by experts that only take health into account," said
Nieuwenhuijsen. "I hope they'll go with the WHO, but probably some will
argue that it would be too expensive."
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