COPENHAGEN: Air pollution causes the deaths of more than 1,200 people under the age of 18 in Europe every year, the European Environment Agency (EEA) estimates in a report released on Monday, reported German news agency (dpa).
“Children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, from when they are in the womb to when they reach adulthood,” the Copenhagen-based agency noted, adding that bad air puts children at higher risk of chronic diseases in adulthood, too.
The pollution needs to be tackled at the source, the EEA experts advocated, saying that emissions from transport, industry and heating must decline more quickly.
One practical measure is to improve the air quality around schools and kindergartens, for example by creating more green spaces.
Despite improvements in recent years, the levels of major pollutants in many European countries remain stubbornly above the limits recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the EEA wrote in another report.
Problems are often particularly prevalent in cities. In 2021, more than 90 per cent of the urban population in EU countries had to live with levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) that were above the WHO recommendations. – BERNAMA-dpa
