Nearly everyone in Europe is breathing polluted air – with deadly consequences | DW News

Virtually everyone in Europe lives in polluted towns and cities where annual average levels of fine particulate matter are higher than the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended limit.
In practical terms, this means that almost everyone on the continent is breathing bad air that has been shown to be fatal.
Air pollution increases the risk of respiratory and heart disease and lowers life expectancy.
"With the current levels of air pollution, many people [are getting] sick. We know that lowering air pollution levels reduces these numbers," said Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, director of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).

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#pollution #europe #climatechange

[bratwurstmitbiryani]

Europe: there's pollution in our air.
India: there's air in our pollution..

[jessegee]

It doesn't just kill you, it makes you miserably and painfully ill for ages before you die 😢

[Joybellmorgans]

Agriculture? We just calculated that one flight of a B777 from Montreal to Rome takes as much fuel as it takes us to run the 50 dairy cow farm for 30 years! So you HAVE to include air traffic as a major polluter as well. As with most news reports, blame the little guy instead of the corporations.

[steveg]

Here in the US we have many who are proud to breathe polluted air and drink polluted water while stuffing billions into the hands of those responsible.🇺🇸

[thestevenjaywaymusic]

All cities should have loads of trees on every street. It is a small step but it would make a difference.

[cmilkau]

You really gotta love how health preserving measures are always "too expensive" when dealing with the consequences of health impairment is much more costly.
What does that remind me of? I think it was something that has to do with stuff in the air as well...

[bsmartcoaching]

Every day people of the world, especially those in well-developed countries need to rise up and demand clean air, water and soil. There is no life without it. Generations to come deserve better.

[efovex]

This is an extremely important topic that I wish had more public attention/mindshare.
When you really look at the numbers of severe illness and death caused by fine particulate matter pollution, it's especially insane that Germany quit nuclear power before it quit coal. (And actually extended its use of coal to fill the gap left in base-load/nighttime power generation.)
It's like banning plane travel because you're worried about a crash, and then making everyone travel by car instead, which is actually much more deadly.

[thetokyodrafts]

I am a Greek national but have been living in Japan for the last 5 years. I have visited Athens 3 times in this period and all times I got asthmatic bronchitis in a matter of two days following my arrival and needed antibiotics. Everyone around me is coughing but I think because it is their daily life they don't realize it's not normal to be coughing everyday....

[Pongant]

Honestly, only banning cars from cities really helps. Foster biking and public transport. This will lead to new investments and makes everybody more healthy.

The amount of money that is being wasted for cars is outstanding.

[txbre]

I came to Belgium two weeks ago from the US. I live in Texas, so the air isn’t the best, but I had an asthma attack for the first time in four years in Belgium. I was choking. I thought my asthma was gone but the pollution triggered it. I’m really glad the Belgian people saved my life.

[stevens]

EU: there's pollution in our air!
India: you breath air?

[stev]

There are so many sources of air polution, just removing old cars is not enough, new heavier cars also emit massive amounts of brakedust and material from their tyres as do delivery trucks etc... The worst thing is... many new heavy (poluting) cars have a HEPA filter protecting those on the inside while still harming those on the outside. It seems unfair to those of us on a bike...

[p.s.]

This again is one case where nothing changes because large corporations (in this case car manufacturers) profit more from the status quo while there are high societal costs that they are not paying. I live in one of the most polluted cities in Germany. We need better public transportation and far better bike infrastructure and we need to severely limit the entry of cars to our inner city, but that just won’t happen.

[giovannimai]

To me all DW presenters are eloquent. I really enjoyed the quality of questions Mr. Goff asked. The wording was excellent.

[ginemginem]

They never talk about Belgrade. Last year it was the most poluted major city in the world at least a handfull of times.

[phasetinkerer]

Great report. Finland has very strict rules when it comes to butcher their nature for building purposes, no wonder why Finland has the minimal pollution

[stevendefehr]

I was in Bogota Colombia last year for three weeks vacation. I think that maybe take 10 years off my life . the car, bus, truck, and motorcycle pollution is through the roof 😢

[Sjalabais]

It's fascinating how the 2.5 ppm map pretty much is a population map over Europe, too. There's no country that has managed to keep air pollution in check, even places like Norway, which has a lot of space and air to diffuse its local pollution. Time to step up!

[YuruCampSupermacy]

Here in India none of the parties don't even pretend to do anything about the air pollution. We have an average AQI between 100-200.