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People in Europe breathe increasingly cleaner air.

The air quality on the continent has improved noticeably over the past few years, as the European Environment Agency (EEA) writes in a report published on Monday.

According to estimates, the positive development has led to almost 60,000 fewer people per year dying prematurely from exposure to particulate matter compared with 2009 to 2018, as the authority in Copenhagen announced.

Nevertheless, almost all Europeans suffer from air pollution from fine dust, nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone - and it is estimated that more than 400,000 people continue to die each year from the effects of these pollutants, tens of thousands of them in Germany.

The EEA experts see a major reason for the higher air quality in a reduction in emissions in key sectors such as transport and energy supply.

In the transport sector, emissions of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide have fallen significantly since 2000, despite the increased demand for mobility and the associated increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

In the energy sector, too, the reductions in emissions are considerable.

In contrast, more needs to be done in agriculture and heating.

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"The EEA data show that investing in better air quality is an investment in better health and productivity for all Europeans," said EEA Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx.

EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius also spoke of good news.

However, he pointed out that there was another side of the coin: "The number of premature deaths in Europe from air pollution is still far too high." This should not be ignored.

63,000 deaths from fine dust in Germany

According to the annual EEA report on air quality in Europe published on Monday, around 417,000 people in 41 European countries died prematurely from pollution with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in 2018.

These included just under 379,000 people in the EU, which also included Great Britain that year, and 63,100 of them in Germany alone.

In addition, there are a total of 55,000 premature deaths in the 41 countries in connection with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and a further 20,600 from ground-level ozone (O3), including 9200 and 4000 in Germany.

While this death rate for NO2 has more than halved in Europe compared to 2009, it has risen by a fifth for ozone.

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The problem children with fine dust are mostly in Eastern Europe, where a comparatively large amount of wood and coal is used for heating.

Six EU countries exceed the EU limit values, namely Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic.

Only in Estonia, Finland, Iceland and Ireland are these values ​​below the recommended values ​​of the World Health Organization (WHO), which are even stricter than those of the EU.

If the WHO values ​​are used as a basis, urban populations in particular have to continue to cope with excessive pollution.

According to the EEA, three out of four EU citizens in urban areas are exposed to particulate matter levels above the WHO recommendation.

As for ozone, it is as good as any city dweller.

In general, the pollutant concentrations do not change very significantly from one year to the next.

However, a lot is already being done against the pollutants, said the main author of the report, Alberto González Ortiz: In Eastern European countries, for example, many places are already switching to less air-polluting fuels.

There are also numerous options for heating and mobility that can be implemented in the course of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

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Speaking of Covid-19: According to the EEA, the pandemic and the lockdowns associated with it have resulted in better air quality.

According to preliminary data, some pollutants have been reduced by up to 60 percent in many European countries.

The nitrogen dioxide concentration in April 2020 during the first high phase of the Corona crisis was 31 percent lower than expected in Germany, for example, in countries with far-reaching lockdowns such as Spain, France and Italy, these reductions were even greater.

On the way to better air, the EEA considers the further implementation of environmental and climate measures to be a key factor.

In order to fully protect the health of people in Europe and the environment, air pollution must be further reduced and quality standards more closely aligned with the recommendations of the WHO, said Environment Commissioner Sinkevicius from the EU authority.