Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Hungary, Romania - all these countries were sued by the EU Commission in 2018 for failing to comply with the limits for nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter.

In this country, nitrogen oxides (NO2) are subject to a limit of 40 micrograms per cubic meter (μg / m3) of annual mean air - it is exceeded in several cities. In recent years, the requirements have been tightened slightly, among other things by introducing so-called 1-hour limit values ​​of 200 micrograms per cubic meter for nitrogen dioxide. Limit values ​​also exist for the different sized particulate matter particles.

More than one hundred pulmonary specialists have now joined forces to formulate a critical position paper, in which they question the accuracy of the current limit values ​​on the grounds that the current state of the study leaves no room for information on the levels at which particulate matter and nitrogen oxides are dangerous to health.

The environmental epidemiologist Barbara Hoffmann and the initiator of the statement Dieter Köhler argue here.

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Barbara Hoffmann

Heinrich-Heine-University Dusseldorf

Barbara Hoffmann

The head of environmental epidemiology at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf is involved in the development of the WHO guidelines for nitrogen oxides. To fine dust she says:

"The limits for particulate matter are too high from a health point of view, they should be tightened."

"If fine dust gets into the lungs - even if only in small quantities - it causes the body to panic. The inhaled particles ensure that certain messenger substances, so-called inflammatory mediators, reach the organism, among other things, from the bronchi via the bloodstream.

This is not a theory, the findings come from randomized and controlled studies * in so-called exposure chambers: In this case, animals and humans were exposed to the fine dust in a chamber. Other disruptive factors such as cigarette smoke or other air pollutants could thus be excluded as the cause of the damage to health.

Among other things, the body's own inflammatory proteins, which are activated by the particulate matter, stimulate the immune system to an inflammatory reaction. Among other things, this can lead to clumping in the blood - the risk of heart attacks and strokes increases.

These are not just risks that arise in the course of years after particulate matter pollution, they can already occur in the short term after a few hours of increased particulate matter concentration.

Extensive studies are already available on the long-term consequences. For example, it is already known from a large number of studies that lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and low birth weight are caused. At loads below the European limit values ​​for particulate matter, these effects also occur.

Currently, there are a number of studies specifically investigating the effects of exposure below the European and significantly lower US limits. Other risk factors such as smoking behavior and physical activity are excluded by various methods. These studies have already shown that even below the applicable limit values ​​for particulate matter there is apparently a correlation between the level of air pollutants and the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer, up to an increased mortality.

So there are many scientifically-based indications that particulate matter is harmful to health - and in quantities that are still below the current limits of the European Union. The latter I therefore consider too high, they should be further lowered - for the health of all.

* Randomized controlled trials randomly assign the subjects to two (or more) groups. One group inhales the fine dust, the control group does not. So you can observe both groups separately and evaluate the effects of fine dust .

CONTRAINDICATIONS

Dieter Köhler

Dieter Köhler

Dieter Köhler

The pulmonologist and former vice president of the German Society of Pneumology says:

"The health hazards of car exhaust are greatly overestimated"

Imagine: According to a larger study, average life expectancy in Seville is higher where particulate matter pollution is particularly high (page 15). Is particulate matter therefore good for your health? That's nonsense, of course. But it shows how difficult it is to study such a complex relationship as the effect of particulate matter on health.

The fact that particulate matter and nitric oxide are said to be responsible for numerous deaths can be read in many different studies. But if you take a closer look, it's just a statistically weak correlation. Lung health and overall health are affected by an infinite number of different factors.

Take the example of diabetes: If a study comes to the conclusion that there is a weak connection between the rate of diabetes and the particulate matter pollution, then as a serious scientist I can not simply say: particulate matter causes diabetes. Because the data does not allow this causal link.

I am also convinced that fine dust damages the lungs and the health, that is medically obvious. However, it depends on the quantity: the current limit values ​​of the European Union are extremely low. In cigarette smoke, for example, the fine dust content is over a million times higher than in the air. If you calculate the smokers' inhaled pollutants and compare them to the "calculated death rates" of particulate matter and carbon monoxide, then all smokers would have to die of various diseases after a few months.

Our opinion shows that I do not share a single opinion: they have signed over 115 other pulmonary physicians with often responsible positions and research experience. This will hopefully have political clout to check and correct the limits.

Because the limits of the European Union are not too high, but too low. If one considers the consequences of the fact that municipalities spend unnecessarily money for driving prohibitions, then that is actually a scandal. Because this money is missing in other, more important places.