Breathing in polluted air is estimated to cause over 1,200 premature deaths among people, children and adolescents in Europe every year, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has warned.
The organisation argued that, despite improvements over past years, Europe is "failing its children" when it comes to air pollution. In its latest report, almost all children across the continent were shown to be exposed to over-polluted air, resulting in hundreds of premature death every year and significantly increasing the risk of disease later in life.
“Air pollution levels across Europe are still unsafe and European air quality policies should aim to protect all citizens, but especially our children, who are most vulnerable to the health impacts of air pollution," said Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director of the EEA.
As the study did not include big industrialised countries such as Russia, Ukraine and the UK, the total death toll among children in Europe may likely be even higher.
Loss of future potential
The level of many key air pollutants in many European countries remains above World Health Organisation (WHO) health-based guidelines, EEA found. In 2021, more than 90% of the EU’s urban population was exposed to harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide, ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), one of the most damaging pollutants.
The EEA's tool allowing citizens to discover how polluted their cities are showed that most Belgian cities analysed were fairly to moderately clean.
Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to air pollution because their bodies, organs and immune systems are still developing, meaning air pollution damages their health more intensely during childhood.
Although the number of young premature deaths is low in comparison to the total for the European population, the agency announced last November that a total of 238,000 people died prematurely in 2020 due to air pollution — arguing that deaths early in life "represent a loss of future potential."
In light of these results, the EEA stresses that more needs to be done to protect the health of children and adolescents from the negative impacts of air pollution.
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"It is urgent that we continue to step up measures at the EU, at the national and local level, to protect our children, who cannot protect themselves. The surest way to keep them safe is by making the air we all breathe cleaner," Bruyninckx said.
The agency included examples in its report, such as reducing air pollution in transport and industry and improving air quality around schools and kindergartens by, for example, creating more green spaces.
