BRUSSELS: Nearly 400,000 people have died because of the air pollution in Europe in 2021, said an EU report on Friday.
It said all three main air pollutants were very high at that time and some of the deaths could have been avoided if pollutants had been brought down to World Health Organization-recommended levels.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) said fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air which affects people with heart diseases in particular, led to 253,000 deaths in 2021.
While pollution from nitrogen dioxide (NO2), harmful to diabetic patients, caused 52,000 deaths and exposure to short-term ozone (O3) claimed 22,000 lives.
EEA in the report said that air pollutant concentrations in 2021 remained above the levels approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its air quality guidelines.
As per the report reducing air pollution under the guidelines could have stopped a significant number of pollution related deaths in EU member states.
The highest number of deaths from PM2.5 in 2021 took place in Poland, Italy and Germany, while countries in northern Europe such as Estonia, Iceland, Scandinavia saw the lowest impact.
According to the report, NO2 and short-term O3 exposure had the biggest impact on deaths in, Italy, Germany and Turkey.
