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WHO lowers limit values: A lot of polluted air

With the reclassification of health-damaging limits for particulate matter and nitrogen oxide, the combustion engine is increasingly under pressure. Advantage: What serves air quality also serves climate goals.

The air in German cities must become cleaner: The WHO has significantly tightened the limits. In cities like Stuttgart or Munich with chronic particulate matter and NOx issues, the pressure to act could further increase. | Photo: J. Reichel
The air in German cities must become cleaner: The WHO has significantly tightened the limits. In cities like Stuttgart or Munich with chronic particulate matter and NOx issues, the pressure to act could further increase. | Photo: J. Reichel
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Johannes Reichel

The World Health Organization (WHO) has significantly lowered the limits for air pollutants nitrogen oxide and particulate matter, thereby indirectly exerting pressure for a faster transformation of vehicle drives in traffic. The levels of particles and NOx must be drastically reduced, demands the WHO. Accordingly, the value for NO2 pollution in the future will no longer be 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air as legally prescribed by EU limits, but only 10 micrograms. The recommendations for the most important air pollutants like particulate matter are now set at PM 2.5 at five instead of ten micrograms (EU limit 25 mg), and at PM10 at 15 instead of 20 micrograms (EU limit 40 mg). Ozone, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide must also be reduced more significantly.

There are no harmless limits

From the scientific perspective, this step is overdue; the impacts of air pollution on health are still massively underestimated, explained Hartmut Herrmann from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He talks about a "considerable excess mortality and morbidity in Europe and worldwide." It has now been proven that negative health effects already appear at lower pollutant concentrations than previously assumed. "There are no harmless threshold values," emphasized Nino Künzli from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute to the SZ. Severe health effects could be triggered even well below the previous limits, added environmental epidemiologist Barbara Hoffmann from the University of Düsseldorf. From her point of view, "a bit of air pollution is bad for the body" if one is exposed to it daily. She points out that health costs are ultimately higher than the costs of air purification.

Underestimated health risk: 417,000 premature deaths in the EU

In general, air pollution is considered one of the greatest health hazards in the EU and worldwide. The European Environmental Agency estimates 417,000 premature deaths per year. Eight percent of the urban population is exposed to particulate matter PM 2.5 above the EU limits, and according to previous WHO standards, even 77 percent. The organization underscores that 80 percent of premature deaths could be avoided by complying with the guidelines. According to the Federal Environment Agency, Germany currently only falls below the limits for carbon monoxide, but exceeds them significantly for ozone, NO2, and PM2.5. Especially for the latter, the fine particles, there is a great need for action; the EU limits are much too high, laments Annette Peters from the Helmholtz Center according to SZ.

More must also happen in road traffic

Momentum for development could come from the new EU air quality guidelines that require an adjustment of EU standards once the WHO recommendations are published. The new limits will then have to align with these. Significant efforts are necessary in most EU countries; even the old WHO guidelines were not nearly met in many countries, warns Hans-Peter Hutter from the University of Vienna to the SZ. He sees the advantage of the current pressure to act in that most measures for road traffic, coal power plants, or residential heating would benefit both health and climate protection. From his point of view, the previous EU regulations are a political decision on "how many additional deaths and illnesses lawmakers are willing to tolerate - primarily for economic reasons," analyzes Hutter. The Swiss specialist Künzli also sees the cause in lobbying, which "put the interests of industry above those of the population."

Translated automatically from German.
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