A recent report by ‘The Guardian’ has unveiled alarming data, indicating that Europe is grappling with a “severe public health crisis” as nearly the entire continent is exposed to air with perilous pollution levels. The data, drawn from over 1,400 ground monitoring stations, reveals that a staggering 98% of the population resides in areas characterized by hazardous air quality. This pollution includes levels of fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) that surpass the guidelines established by the World Health Organization (WHO).
‘The Guardian’ investigation disclosed that two-thirds of the population inhabits regions where PM2.5 levels are more than double the WHO guidelines. In North Macedonia, almost two-thirds of the populace resides in areas where PM2.5 levels are over four times higher than the WHO recommendations. Experts point out that PM2.5 pollution is culpable for an estimated 400,000 deaths in Europe annually, marking a severe public health crisis.
Roel Vermeulen, Professor of environmental epidemiology at Utrecht University, remarked, “What we see quite clearly is that nearly everyone in Europe is breathing unhealthy air.”
The primary contributors to PM2.5 pollution are identified as traffic, industrial activities, domestic heating, and agriculture. A recent study highlighted that air pollution leads to approximately 1 million stillbirths each year. Experts emphasize that these deaths are preventable, and the estimate doesn’t encompass numerous cases of non-fatal diseases, disability-adjusted life years, hospitalizations, or health effects from other pollutants.
Dr. Hanna Boogaard, an expert on air pollution in Europe at the US Health Effects Institute, underlined the severity of the situation, stating, “These deaths are preventable, and the estimate does not include millions of cases of non-fatal diseases, years lived with disability, attributable hospitalizations, or health effects from other pollutants.”
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