An estimated 500,000 fatalities in the European Union were attributed to poor air quality in 2021; of those deaths, around half would have been prevented if pollution levels had been lowered to ranges advised by medical professionals.
The European Environment Agency's (EEA) study found that PM2.5 concentrations over the World Health Organization's (WHO) limit of 5 g/m3 were responsible for 253,000 premature deaths. Excessive amounts of nitrogen dioxide were responsible for 52,000 fatalities, while short-term exposure to ozone resulted in another 22,000.
According to EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkeviius, "The figures released today by the EEA remind us that air pollution is still the number one environmental health problem in the EU."
An aerial view of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia covered by smog on February 5, 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Among Major Causes of Death Worldwide
According to the Guardian, experts claim that one of the leading causes of death worldwide is air pollution, but if nations improve their economies, the mortality toll will soon decline. The number of PM2.5-related fatalities in the EU decreased by 41% between 2005 and 2021, and the EU hopes to reduce this figure by another 55% by the end of the decade.
In 2021, the WHO updated its air quality standards, warning that no level of air pollution can be considered acceptable while setting maximum levels for some contaminants. In September, the European Parliament agreed to adopt the WHO's air quality standards throughout the EU, but they opted to wait until 2035 to do so.
Sinkevičius said, "The good news is that clean air policy works, and our air quality is improving. But we need to do better still, and bring pollution levels down further."
The EEA has, for the first time, attempted to quantify the total burden of illness attributable to air pollution. Researchers calculated how long people may expect to live with illnesses caused by poor air quality in addition to looking at the raw mortality tolls.
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Sickness From Air Pollution
The additional effort made no difference in several health issues, such as lung cancer and ischemic heart disease. For others, like those with asthma, however, it shed light on significant suffering that had been hidden in death rates.
According to EEA air pollution expert Alberto González Ortiz, individuals often pass away extremely fast when diagnosed with lung cancer. "For other diseases - especially asthma but also diabetes or also chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - there is also an important contribution of this state of living with disability."
In 2021, the EEA predicted that PM2.5 pollution would cause roughly 150,000 premature deaths and the equivalent number of years of disability across the EU due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
People may endure terrible conditions for a long time, González Ortiz added. "Considering only mortality, we were underestimating the impact of air pollution."
Inhaling massive quantities of poisonous gas and hazardous particles is a direct result of the widespread use of fossil fuels, the automobile, and livestock. The tiniest of these PM2.5 particles may enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body, causing harm to everything from the brain to the reproductive system.
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