Most people in European cities breathe air that is harmful to health, despite improvements over the past two decades and a reduction caused by the Covid-XNUMX lockdown last year, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said on Tuesday.
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to human health, with harmful particles causing 307.000 deaths in the European Union (EU) in 2019 - although this was around 33% fewer deaths than in 2005 - according to the EEA, Reuters writes .
Around 97% of the EU's urban population was exposed to higher levels of particulate matter above World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines in 2019, while 94% faced higher levels of nitrogen dioxide, the EEA said in a report.
Exposure to air pollution is linked to lung cancer, cardiovascular disease and asthma.
Provisional figures for 2020, which have not been fully confirmed, suggest some improvements.
The EEA said this was likely due to weather conditions and the COVID-19 quarantine, which temporarily curbed polluting industrial activity and traffic.
In 27 EU member states and other European countries, including Turkey and Kosovo, 95% of air quality monitoring stations registered concentrations of harmful particles above WHO guidelines in 2019, falling to 2020% in 92.
As for nitrogen dioxide, 79% registered concentrations above WHO guidelines in 2019, falling to 71% last year.
The sources of harmful particles are traffic, industry, and in Central and Eastern Europe it is associated with the burning of solid fuels for heating homes.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Poland and Bulgaria are among the countries with the highest level of these particles.
The highest levels of nitrogen dioxide, which is mainly caused by road traffic, include Germany and Luxembourg.
The report highlighted the gap between the WHO's limits - which were tightened this year after a review of scientific evidence on how air pollution harms health - and EU air quality limits, which are far looser.
Only one percent of air quality monitoring stations registered either harmful particles or nitrogen dioxide levels above EU limits last year.
The EU has said it will revise its air quality standards next year to bring them more in line with the WHO.
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