Brussels, 06/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - According to the most recent data published on Wednesday 6 May by the European Environment Agency (EEA), air pollution by ground-level ozone rarely exceeded alert thresholds, although concentrations of ground-level ozone were much higher than they should have been, according to EU legislation.
Exposure to ground-level ozone can be fatal and can cause and aggravate cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The European Union's Air Quality Directive sets out an information threshold: 1-hour average ozone concentration of 180 ìg/m3, alert threshold: 1-hour average ozone concentration of 240 ìg/m3, long-term objective: the maximum daily 8-hour mean concentration of ozone should not exceed 120 ìg/m3, target value: long-term objective should not be exceeded on more than 25 days per year, averaged over 3 years.
According to the EEA, almost all European countries recorded at least one exceedance of the long-term objective between April to September 2014, with exceedances occurring in all reporting countries except Croatia, Estonia, Ireland, Romania and Serbia, although ozone concentrations higher than the alert threshold were reported only in France, on four occasions.
Seven EU member states (Austria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, and Spain) had stations where ozone levels exceeded the long-term objective on more than 25 days. Ozone concentrations higher than the information threshold were reported from monitoring stations in 18 countries, although no exceedances were reported in thirteen countries (Andorra, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Sweden). Measurements were reported from 1,607 monitoring stations across 30 European countries. (Aminata Niang)