Air pollution poisons European cities causing thousands of premature deaths

Air pollution still plagues European cities each year causing thousands of deaths, while around 12,000 or 17,000 premature deaths could be avoided if pollution were reduced, according to results released by the National Institute of European study health monitoring.
The study was conducted in 26 European cities monitored: Athens, Barcelona, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Bucharest, Budapest, Celje, Krakow, Dublin, Gothenburg, Le Havre, Lille, Ljubljana, London, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, Paris , Rome, Rouen, Seville, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Tel Aviv, Toulouse and Valencia. They all participate in the program said Apheis (Air Pollution and Health: A European Information System) which researchers report its third phase.

"The results of the third phase of this program are reported, confirming the conclusion of Apheis-2: air pollution continues to pose a public health problem in urban areas in Europe," the authors write in the study.

Established in 1999, the Apheis (www.apheis.net) is co-funded by the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission and the participating institutions in the program in each city. Coordinated by the Institute of Health Surveillance (VS, France) and the Agencia de Hi Pública de Barcelona (ASPB, Spain).

The last part of health impact assessment has incorporated new data sources to its analysis. Including Apheis-3 data included on the particles of a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers which have been added to measurements of black smoke and a particle size less than 10 microns.

The results Apheis-3 indicate that a reduction in the levels of particles with a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers to 15 micrograms/m3 produces a benefit in terms of mortality (total and specific) 30% higher reduction levels to 20 μg/m3.

Specifically, Apheis-3 was estimated to number 11,375 premature deaths (8053 cardiopulmonary origin and 1,296 lung cancer) that could be prevented each year if all things being equal, the Long-term exposure of smaller particles was reduced to 20 μg/m3 in each city. The reduction to 15 μg/m3 of these particles would prevent some 16,926 premature deaths (including 11,612 cardiopulmonary and 1 901 lung cancer).

In terms of life expectancy, an average of these small particles that do not exceed 15 μg/m3 would result in an average gain of 2 to 13 months of life expectancy for a person of 30 years.

In the CAFE program of the European Commission held discussions to determine the limits, experts Apheis recommend that the limit is set at 15 μg/m3. However, the health benefits that can be expected of such a reduction "would be even more obvious if the limit was set below the threshold," they said.

In case of a reduction of exposure to larger particles (less than 10 micrometers in diameter) in the 23 cities of the program and measure the total of nearly 36 million, the EIS states that if exposure reduced to 20 μg/m3, 2580 premature deaths (including 1741 cardiovascular and 429 respiratory origin) could be prevented each year if the impact is only felt over a very short period of two days.

The short-term impact, cumulated over 40 days would be more than 2 times, totaling 5,240 deaths could be prevented each year (including 3458 of cardio-vascular and respiratory origin 1348). In the long term (several years) the impact is larger and can be estimated 21,828 premature deaths prevented annually.

Apheis-3 showed that while most cities already meet the 2005 limit value of 40 μg/m3, 21 cities continue to exceed the limit value of 20 μg/m3 in 2010.

For black smoke (generally considered a good indicator of pollution due to traffic) in the 16 cities of the measurement program (24 million), it is estimated that its reduction to a daily value 20 μg/m3 would prevent 1,296 premature deaths each year (including 405 cardiovascular deaths and 109 respiratory origin).