As for adults, this pollution is the main environmental risk to the health of miners and cuts their life expectancy, according to this study of some thirty countries on the continent, including the 27 EU Member States.
“The air pollution causes more than 1,200 premature deaths per year in under 18 year olds in Europe and significantly increases the risk of disease later in life,” writes the EEA in its report.
“Despite progress over the past years, the levels of several major air pollutants continue to remain above World Health Organization guidelines, particularly in the central and eastern Europe, as well as in Italy“underlines the organization dependent on the European Union.
The Po plain in Italy, areas close to large coal-fired power plants as well as large cities in the center and east of the continent are regularly singled out for poor air quality.
Several European countries – including the United Kingdom or Ukraine – are not part of the study, suggesting that the continental balance sheet is actually darker.
According to another report published by the EEA in November, at least 238,000 people – all ages combined – died prematurely in 2020 in Europe due to air pollution in the member countries of the agency (European Union, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein).
Even if the share of children and teenagers impacted by air pollution is “relatively weak” compared to the general population, dying so soon “represents a loss of potential future as well as a significant burden of chronic diseases both in childhood and later in life“, emphasizes the AEE.
The agency recommends focusing on air quality around schools and nurseries, as well as sports facilities and public transport.
Seven million deaths per year
Its effects begin before birth, maternal exposure to air pollution “being linked to low birth weights and premature births”recalls the environmental agency.
After birth, environmental pollution increases the risk of several health problems, including asthma – which affects 9% of children and adolescents in Europe – or respiratory insufficiency and infections, also underlines the agency.
These effects are aggravated by the fact that children are more physically active than adults and that their small size brings them closer to pollution, particularly car exhaust.
All ages combined, 97% of the urban population were exposed in 2021 to air that does not comply with WHO recommendations, according to the latest data released on Monday.
In its November report, however, the EEA noted that the European Union was on track to meet its target of reducing premature deaths by more than 50% by 2030 compared to 2005.
At the beginning of the 1990s, fine particles caused almost a million premature deaths in the 27 countries of the EU. In 2005, 431,000 people still died from it, according to agency data.
However, the European situation remains overall better than anywhere else on the planet: according to the WHO, air pollution is the cause of seven million premature deaths a year in the world, a balance sheet close to that caused by smoking or poor diet.
Several hundred thousand of these deaths concern children under 15, according to the UN organization.
These heavy assessments had led it in September 2021 to establish more restrictive limits for the main air pollutants, for the first time since 2005.
The most serious air pollution comes first from fine particles, which penetrate deep into the lungs. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) follow, according to health agencies.
