Briefing

Harm to human health from air pollution in Europe: burden of disease 2023

Briefing Published 24 Nov 2023 Last modified 21 Jun 2024

17 min read

Photo: © Fani Papageorgiou, ZeroWaste PIX/ EEA

Air pollution is currently the most important environmental health risk factor in Europe. It remains an important cause of poor health and contributes in particular to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. This briefing presents information for 2021 of the estimated harm to human health caused by three key air pollutants: fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone. This year’s assessment also presents an estimation of the health impacts associated with specific diseases to which air pollution contributes. Such impacts are expressed using burden of disease metrics, namely ‘morbidity’ (the state of having a disease or disability) and ‘mortality’ (deaths that have occurred due to a specific disease or a group of diseases).

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Disclaimer

The country assessments are the sole responsibility of the EEA member and cooperating countries supported by the EEA through guidance, translation and editing.

For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/harm-to-human-health-from-air-pollution/harm-to-human-health-from or scan the QR code.

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