Commission asks nine Member States to reduce nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter

Brussels, 08/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has sent first written warnings to Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, urging them to do more to tackle air pollution in many of their urban areas. The air pollutants considered in this case - nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter - are harmful to human health, in particular to sensitive groups of the population such as children. Especially particulate matter aggravates respiratory diseases, and may even lead to premature death. Under EU environmental legislation, the nine Member States should have drawn up pollution-reduction plans for areas with high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter by the end of December 2003. These plans have to outline the measures that the Member States intend to take to reduce the pollution. The choice of measures is up to the Member States, but they could, for example, include traffic restrictions and the relocation of polluting installations.

In all Member States being pursued, the 2001 edition of the annual report that these countries are obliged to communicate to the Commission for indicating zones and cities which are above the NO2 and PM10 value limits, illustrate that these levels have been exceeded. Nevertheless none of the none countries with the partial exception of the United Kingdom has communicated pollution reduction plans or programmes. United Kingdom: Its annual report for 2001 identified concentrations of nitrogen dioxide higher than the limit value plus the margin of tolerance in 21 zones. Pollution-reduction plans or programmes have been established for most of them, including for instance the Greater London Urban Area (the only zone in which also concentrations of PM10 exceeding the limit value plus the margin of tolerance were identified) and Manchester. However, the plans or programmes are still missing for the following seven zones: Tyneside, Liverpool Urban Area, Nottingham Urban Area, Kingston Upon Hull, Southampton Urban Area and Glasgow Urban Area.