Achievements in combating air pollutionĪir quality in Europe has much improved since the EU first started to tackle this issue in the 1970s. This can affect quality of life and lead to significant levels of stress, sleep disturbance and adverse health effects, such as cardiovascular problems. It is estimated that around 20% of the population of the EU are subjected to noise levels that are considered unacceptable.
The most problematic pollutants today are fine particles, nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone.Įnvironmental noise levels are rising in urban areas, mainly as a result of increasing traffic volumes and intensifying industrial and recreational activities. Air quality standards are often not complied with, especially in urban areas (air pollution ‘hotspots’) – which is where the majority of Europeans live. While air pollution in Europe has generally decreased in recent decades, the EU’s 2013 long-term objective, namely to achieve levels of air quality that do not have significant negative impacts on human health and the environment, still remains to be attained. Air pollution has many sources, but mainly stems from industry, transport, energy production and agriculture. Agriculture and forests, as well as material and buildings, are therefore affected. Air pollution also negatively impacts the quality of water and soil and damages ecosystems through eutrophication (excess nitrogen pollution) and acid rain. Certain substances, such as arsenic, cadmium, nickel and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are human genotoxic carcinogens, and there is no identifiable threshold below which they do not pose a risk. General backgroundĪir pollution can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as cancer, and is the leading environmental cause of premature death in the EU. Legal basisĪrticles 191 to 193 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Separate legislation regulates noise pollution from specific sources. The 2002 Environmental Noise Directive helps to identify noise levels in the EU and to take the necessary measures to reduce them to acceptable levels. The EU also aims to improve overall EU legislation for clean air, building on the lessons learnt from the 2019 evaluation of the Ambient Air Quality Directives. As part of the European Green Deal, the EU is revising these standards to align them more closely with the recommendations of the World Health Organization.
#Advanced air and noise pollution control full
The 2013 EU air quality strategy aimed to achieve full compliance with existing air quality legislation by 2020 and set long-term objectives for 2030.
Air pollution mainly stems from industry, transport, energy production and agriculture. Air pollution and excessive noise harm our health and our environment.
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