Air pollution causes 300,000 premature deaths a year in Europe, report says

If the latest air quality guidelines from the WHO were followed by EU members, the deaths could be cut in half, the European Environment Agency said

Heart disease and strokes cause most premature deaths blamed on air pollution

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Plumes of smoke rise from Europe’s largest lignite power plant in Belchatow, central Poland. File photo: AP

Published: 9:52am, 15 Nov 2021Updated: 9:52am, 15 Nov 2021

Premature deaths caused by fine particle air pollution have fallen 10 per cent annually across Europe, but the invisible killer still accounts for 307,000 fatalities a year, the European Environment Agency said on Monday.

If the latest air quality guidelines from the World Health Organization were followed by EU members, the latest number of deaths recorded in 2019 could be cut in half, according to an EEA report.

Deaths linked to fine particular matter – with a diameter below 2.5 micrometers or PM2.5 – were estimated at 346,000 for 2018.

The clear reduction in deaths for the following year were put down partly to favourable weather but above all to a progressive improvement in air quality across the continent, the European Union’s air pollution data centre said.

In the early 1990s, fine particles, which penetrate deeply into the lungs, led to nearly a million premature deaths in the 27 EU member nations, according to the report.

That figure had been more than halved to 450,000 by 2005.