According to research, air pollution to the levels recommended by the World Health Organization could prevent more than 50,000 deaths in Europe each year.
The WHO estimates that air pollution kills more than 7 million people annually and is one of the leading causes of illness and absence from work worldwide.
Cities, with their busy streets and high energy consumption, are hotspots for diseases and diseases related to air pollution.
The WHO recommends that fine particles (PM2.5) do not exceed 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air, on average annually. For nitrogen dioxide
(NO2), the threshold not to be exceeded is 40μg / m3.
Wednesday’s study, published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, estimates the premature death toll from these two pollutants in nearly 1,000 cities in Europe.
It has been found that reducing PM2.5 and NO2 to safe WHO levels may prevent 51,213 premature deaths per year.
Nearly 125,000 deaths a year could be saved if air pollution levels were reduced to the lowest in the study, the authors said.
Mark Nieuwenhuijsen of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) said the research “proves that many cities are still not doing enough to tackle air pollution”.
“Levels above WHO’s guidelines lead to unnecessary deaths,” he said.
Using city-specific data on air pollution models combined with mortality rates, the researchers formed a “mortality burden score” that ranked individual cities from best to worst.
Deaths due to air pollution have varied widely, with NO2 levels in Madrid, for example, accounting for 7% of annual deaths there. Cities in the Po Valley region in northern Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic were the highest death toll, with the Italian cities of Brescia, Bergamo and Vicenza all in the top five for PM2.5 concentrations.
Those with the lowest death rates included Tromso in Norway, Umea in Sweden and Oulu in Finland, as well as the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik.
On average, 84% of the population in spent cities was exposed to PM2.5 levels above the WHO guideline. Nine percent are exposed to NO as recommended2 levels, the study found.
Sasha Khomenko, co-author of the ISGlobal study, said it was important to introduce local emission reduction measures in light of the high volatility associated with poor air mortality.
“We urgently need a change from private motorized traffic to public and active transport (s) and a reduction in emissions from industry, airports and ports,” she said.
Khomenko also said that a ban on domestic wood and coal burning cities in Central Europe helps a lot, and called for more trees and green spaces in urban areas.
• This article was edited on 20 January 2021. In an earlier version, nitric oxide was incorrectly referred to as ‘nitric oxide’.