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Key messages: Mortality is the most serious impact air pollution has on human health. But wellbeing and quality of life are also affected by air pollution, which causes a range of diseases, especially respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. For specific diseases, the contribution of morbidity to the burden of disease might be equally or more important than mortality in terms of the number of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes caused by exposure to air pollution show the importance of including morbidity within the impact air pollution has on human health.
Mortality refers to the number of deaths that have occurred because of a specific disease or group of diseases. It is the most serious health outcome of exposure to air pollution, with robust and extensive scientific evidence of causality. Comparable high-quality data on mortality are more frequently available across European countries. Furthermore, the Zero Pollution Action Plan aims to reduce premature deaths attributable to air pollution by more than 55% by 2030.
However, exposure to air pollution causes or aggravates a range of specific diseases. Therefore, to estimate the total harm of air pollution on health, the impacts of both mortality (generally expressed as years of life lost, YLL) and morbidity (expressed as years lived with a disease or disability, YLD) must be combined. The sum of mortality and morbidity represents the total burden of disease, usually expressed as DALYs (lost years of healthy life due to disease, injury or risk factor).
The EEA has estimated the total burden of disease for ten selected pollutant-disease pairs, using data from the year 2022 (see Figure).
The burden of disease was estimated for concentrations above the World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guideline levels: 5µg/m3 for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), 10µg/m3 for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and 60µg/m3 for ozone (O3). It highlights the need to include the contribution of morbidity to the burden of disease to avoid underestimating the overall health impact of air pollution. For instance, in the cases of lung cancer and ischemic heart disease due to PM2.5, the total burden of disease results vastly from mortality: it accounts for 99% and 97%, respectively, of the impact. For the other four diseases, the contribution of morbidity to the total burden of disease is much more relevant and reaches 99% for childhood asthma (EEA, 2024).
Please consult the relevant indicators and signals below for a more comprehensive overview on the topic.
Zero Pollution Action Plan 2030 target or policy objectives
- To reduce air pollution to levels that are no longer considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems, resulting in a toxic-free environment (EC, 2021).
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Other relevant indicators and signals
References and footnotes
- EEA, 2024, Harm to human health from air pollution in Europe: burden of disease status, 2024,European Environment Agency, Briefing no. 21/2024. Harm to human health from air pollution in Europe: burden of disease status, 2024 | European Environment Agency's home page, accessed December 2024.↵
- EC, 2021, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions ‘Pathway to a Healthy Planet for All EU Action Plan: ‘Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil’’ (COM/2021/400 final).↵