Air quality: we breathe badly in more than 60% of cities monitored by the EEA
A road sign indicates the speed limit in order to improve air quality in a street in the Mitte district (center) of Berlin on June 3, 2021. AFP - TOBIAS SCHWARZ
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2 min
The European Environment Agency (EEA) publishes a ranking of European cities based on air quality.
Measurements have been made in nearly 320 cities in Europe over the past two years.
The results are not good in more than 60% of the cities monitored.
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With our correspondent in Brussels,
Joana Hostein
Umea in Sweden, Tampere in Finland and Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira.
Here is the podium of European cities where we breathe the best.
At the back of the pack, there are several cities in Croatia, Poland, and northern Italy.
For this classification, the European Environment Agency based itself on the concentrations of fine particles, considered to be the most dangerous for health.
Result: 75% of Europeans are exposed to too high levels.
This is a source of concern since air pollution is the cause of more than 400,000 premature deaths per year.
The European Union has therefore set an annual threshold for exposure to fine particles not to be exceeded, a limit, regret some, half as strict as that recommended by the World Health Organization (WTO).
The agency's latest finding: during the health crisis, nitrogen dioxide concentrations, mainly linked to transport, were reduced by more than 60%, particularly in France, Italy and Spain, where confinement was the strictest.
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To read also: Containment: air pollution on the decline in European metropolises
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