A polluted sky (illustration).

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Parveen Kumar / Hindustan Times // S

Air pollution is expensive for health but also for the wallet.

The price of bad air we breathe is 166 billion euros per year in Europe, according to a report published on Wednesday examining the costs associated with premature death, care and lost workdays.

Produced by the firm CE Delft for the European Alliance for Public Health (EPHA), an NGO platform based in Brussels, the document looks at 432 cities in the 27 countries of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland.

The Organization compares the three main air pollutants, particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and ozone (O3) and their social costs, i.e. the costs direct care-related and indirect, such as reduced life expectancy or diseases such as severe chronic bronchitis.

And it is London which tops the list of cities where this cost is highest (11.4 billion euros), ahead of Bucharest and Berlin.

Paris comes in seventh place, according to the report.

Encourage "non-polluting mobility"

"Our study reveals how toxic air is harmful to health but also how many significant inequalities exist between the different countries of Europe", comments the secretary general of EPHA, Sascha Marschang, quoted in a press release from the association. Breathe.

“The situation can be improved by public transport policies and cities can reduce costs by encouraging non-polluting mobility,” he continues.

Air pollution in cities is due to several factors: transport, heating of homes, or even industrial or agricultural activities.

While it is difficult to accurately assess the share of each of these sectors, the report looked at transport and estimated that a 1% increase in the number of cars in a city increases social costs by nearly 0.5%.

In France, Paris tops the ranking, with a total annual cost of 3.5 billion euros and 1,602 euros per capita, ahead of Lyon, Nice, Melun and Douai.

In France, 48,000 premature deaths per year

In July, the Council of State condemned the State to a record penalty for poor air quality.

To remedy this, the government is counting on the creation of “low emission zones” in several towns.

Air pollution is responsible for 48,000 premature deaths per year in France and 480,000 in Europe, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA), figures which could be underestimated.

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