European Environment Agency declared polluted air is causing 307,000 premature deaths a year in Europe. According to the Agency, EU did not follow the latest air quality guidelines from the World Health Organisation.
In 2018, PM2.5 in air killed 346,000 people. In the following years, there was a slight improvement in the air quality across the whole country.
In the era of 1990s, fine particles in air led to a million premature deaths in Europe. In 2005, the figure has reached to 450,000.
EAA has registered three main leading pollutants causing premature deaths. One of them is nitrogen dioxide- diffused from car, trucks and thermal power stations.
The Agency said, air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to human health in Europe. Air pollution causes heart disease and strokes along with lung ailments including cancer.
Air pollution also affects children through damaging the development of their lung and causes respiratory infections and aggravate asthma.
Though the situation has improved, but the Agency has warned that most EU countries were still above the WHO recommended pollution limits.
According to UN health body, air pollution causes seven million premature deaths across the globe per year. This is the same rate as smoking and poor diet kills people.
This situation insisted WHO to tighten its recommended limits on major air pollutants.
Europe has aimed to reduce 55 percent premature deaths that’s happens due to air pollution by the year of 2030.
