Nov. 27, 2008
A European Environment Agency (EEA) report published on November 13 revealed that Europe has made substantial cuts in air pollutants across the continent since 1997, but that concentrations of ozone and particulate matter have remained constant. An EEA press release announcing the study results outlined three key points of interest.
First, from 1990-2004 up to 43% of Europe's urban population was exposed to PM10 concentrations in excess of the EU's air quality limit value, the worst affected areas being Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy's Po Valley, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and southern Spain.
During the same period, Europe's urban population was exposed to similar excesses of ozone concentrations, and crop and forest exposure to ozone exceeded "limit/critical values" over very large areas of Central and Southern Europe.
Finally, human exposure to other potentially harmful air pollutants has decreased markedly because of effective continent-wide air quality policies. This is particularly true regarding sulphur dioxide emissions from power and heat generation, and lower carbon monoxide and lead emissions from passenger cars.
