Data Reveals Nearly , Everyone in Europe Is Breathing , Dangerously Toxic Air.
'The Guardian' reports that Europe is facing a "severe
public health crisis" as nearly the entire continent is
breathing air with dangerous levels of pollution.
According to data, including measurements
from over 1,400 ground monitoring stations,
98% of people live in areas with dangerously dirty air.
That dirty air includes levels of fine particulate
pollution (PM2.5) that exceeds the guidelines
set out by the World Health Organization.
'The Guardian' found that two-thirds of people
live in areas where levels of fine particulates are
more than double the WHO guidelines.
In North Macedonia, nearly two-thirds of people
in the country live in areas with levels of PM2.5
over four times higher than the WHO guidelines.
According to experts, PM2.5
pollution is responsible for 400,000
deaths in Europe every year.
This is a severe public health crisis.
What we see quite clearly is that
nearly everyone in Europe
is breathing unhealthy air, Roel Vermeulen, Professor of environmental
epidemiology at Utrecht University, via 'The Guardian'.
The main producers of PM2.5 pollution are traffic,
industry, domestic heating and agriculture.
According to a recent study, air pollution was
responsible for 1 million stillbirths every year. .
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, Dr Hanna Boogaard, Expert on air pollution in Europe at the US Health Effects Institute, via 'The Guardian'