Air pollution in most EU Member States exceeds the limit values imposed by EU legislation on ambient air quality, let alone the more stringent recommendations of the World Health Organization, according to official data for 2019 and provisional data for 2020 published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on 21 September.
New WHO recommendations are expected on Wednesday 22 September.
The EEA report compiles data from over 4,500 monitoring stations in 40 European countries, including the UK. It shows that by 2019, all Member States were over the limit for one or more pollutants - a major risk to Europeans’ health, the EEA points out.
The key results are as follows:
- Particulate Matter (PM10): 21 countries (including 16 EU Member States) registered concentrations above the EU daily limit value in 2019, while 31 countries registered concentrations above the 2005 WHO guidelines.
- Fine particulate matter (PM2.5): 7 countries (including 4 EU Member States) registered concentrations above the EU annual limit value in 2019, and 28 countries registered concentrations above the WHO standards.
- Ground-level Ozone (O3): 24 countries (including 19 Member States) registered concentrations above the EU annual limit value in 2019, and WHO standards were exceeded in all countries.
- Nitrogen dioxide (NO2): 22 countries (including 18 Member States) registered concentrations in 2019 above the EU annual limit value, which is the same as the WHO recommended value.
It should be recalled that the European Commission has announced a revision of EU air quality standards for the third quarter of 2022, with a view to aligning them more closely with WHO standards as part of the European Green Deal (see EUROPE 12686/10).
See the EEA report: https://bit.ly/3zwTXHU (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)