Although the figure remains alarming, it has fallen by more than 10% in one year, estimates the European Environment Agency.
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Fine particle pollution caused 307,000 premature deaths in the European Union in 2019, a figure which remains alarming but which has fallen by more than 10% in one year, according to a report from the European Environment Agency published Monday, November 15. According to the study, more than half of those lives could be saved if the 27 member countries met the new air quality targets recently set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2018, the number of deaths linked to fine particles PM 2.5 (particles suspended in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers) was estimated at 346,000. The sharp drop in 2019 is partly explained by favorable weather conditions but above all by the continued gradual improvement of air quality in Europe, according to the EEA.
In the early 1990s, fine particles, which penetrate deep into the lungs, caused nearly a million premature deaths in the 27 EU countries, according to these data. A figure that had already fallen to around 450,000 in 2005. Among the main EU countries, fine particle pollution was responsible in 2019 for 53,800 premature deaths in Germany, 49,900 in Italy, 29,800 in France and 23,300 in Spain, according to the EAA. With 39,300 deaths, Poland is the country most affected in relation to its population.