Air pollution in Europe is still too high. This is one of the on Monday by the European environment Agency (EEA) published a Report on air quality in Europe in 2018. According to the Agency, based in Copenhagen air pollution is the main reason for premature deaths in 41 European countries. Based on data from more than 2500 monitoring stations in the whole of Europe. Despite slow progress, the limits of the European Union and the world health organization, WHO, in many places, would be exceeded.
For the year 2015, the researchers come to about of 442,000 calculated premature deaths associated with air pollution, of which approximately 391.000 in the 28 EU member States. Causes about of fine dust, ground-level ozone, and nitrogen dioxide. They can cause or aggravate respiratory ailments, cardiovascular diseases or cancer and led to a shortened service life, so the EEA.
As the main sources of pollution the report mentions
- the road,
- the production of energy,
- agriculture,
- Industry
- and private households.
“Emissions from road traffic are often worse than those from other sources,” said EEA Director, Hans Bruyninckx. You would encounter close to the ground and were often in the cities, and close to the people. But not only humans are affected. Air pollution may also damage Ecosystems, soils, forests, lakes and rivers affect and crop yields diminish.
In Germany, researchers assume that a polluted environment has contributed to the death of more than 62,000 people. That’s the equivalent of about one in every 15. In case of death, such as a large team of researchers in a more than 50-page report in the journal “The Lancet” writes. More than 44,000 of these deaths accounted for accordingly to outdoor air pollution.
Worldwide, seven million people die from inhaling regularly dirty air. More than half of them are particulates of the trigger created within the households to cook. This is the result of a global study, published by the world health organization (WHO) in may of this year. Accordingly, 90 percent of the world’s population of polluted air.
The good news of the EEA-researchers: Tougher rules for air pollution control, and improved Standards for vehicle emissions, industry and energy production have led since 1990 to a reduction of premature death by about half.
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