The Regional Health Observatory publishes a study this Thursday showing that the improvement in air quality in Île-de-France has reduced the number of deaths linked to fine particles by 40% between 2010 and 2019.
Through these figures, the Observatory hopes to encourage the authorities to continue to act to reduce atmospheric pollution.
More than 6,000 people still die each year in Île-de-France because of fine particles.
This Thursday, the Regional Health Observatory (ORS) of Île-de-France publishes a study on air quality and its effects on the health of Ile-de-France residents.
According to the report produced in partnership with the Airparif Institute, in ten years, mortality attributable to air pollution has decreased.
“Over the past decade, the number of deaths attributable to prolonged exposure to PM2.5 has fallen by 40%,” comments Sabine Host, Health-Environment Research Officer at ORS Île-de-France.
PM2.5 are fine particles emitted during combustion phenomena (motor vehicles or industry) and which penetrate deep into the lungs.
Chronic exposure, as is the case in all developed countries, has an impact on cardiovascular health.
PM2.5 particles from road traffic can even affect neurological health and perinatal health.
By comparing measurements taken from 2008 to 2010 with those taken between 2017 and 2019, the number of annual deaths attributable to PM2.5 fell from 10,350 to 6,220, saving eight months of life expectancy for Ile-de-France residents over this same period.
Ten months of life expectancy gain in Paris
Fine particles are not the only ones to have declined over the 2010-2019 period.
In its study, the Ile-de-France Health Observatory also measured nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions and their impact on mortality.
Here again, with a 32% drop in transport-related nitrogen dioxide emissions between 2010 and 2018, the annual number of deaths related to prolonged exposure to NO2 fell from 4,520 to 3,680, a drop of almost 19%, which represents an average gross gain of two months in life expectancy.
According to the ORS, all the territories of Île-de-France have benefited from this improvement, especially the city of Paris where the gross gain in life expectancy amounts to nearly ten months.
“The emissions there are very strong, the concentration of particles in the atmosphere is very high and the population is very dense.
It is therefore particularly exposed.
But a reduction in this pollution therefore benefits it more.
Unfortunately, we cannot add up all these gains, these two products coming from the same sources as other pollutants, it is difficult to isolate their effects quite precisely.
Communicate to encourage
All these measures tend to optimism, and the institutes want to communicate in this sense.
In its report, the ORS notes that “communication on the impacts of atmospheric pollution, often negative, can be experienced as anxiety-provoking and lead to resignation.
Moreover, it contributes to maintaining the false idea that the situation is deteriorating”.
By highlighting the health benefits that improvements in air quality can bring, the Observatory hopes to encourage the authorities to work in this direction.
“As we can see, intervention measures can really have an impact on the situation.
For example, strong measures on public transport, such as those taken with a view to the Olympic Games, show rapid reductions in air pollution which will be seen in health indicators,” adds Sabine Host.
Progress still to be made
These measures, the Health Observatory and Airparif call for them with all their hearts.
Because as they point out, these improvements should not hide what the figures say: If the annual average levels of PM2.5 observed over the period 2017-2019 were brought back to the reference level set by the WHO (5 µg/m3 ), 6,200 deaths could be avoided in Île-de-France, i.e. nearly one death in ten (9%).
Similarly, the average annual NO2 levels observed in 2019, reduced to the levels recommended by the WHO (10 µg/m3), would prevent 2,350 deaths in the region, or 3.4% of the deaths observed.
Sabine Host recalls that in its April 2021 report, Public Health France estimated at 40,000 the number of annual deaths attributable to fine particles alone between 2016 and 2019.
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