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EU set stricker legal limits on toxic air polution.


The European Union proposes stricter legal limits on toxic air pollution, according to the bloc’s top environmental official.

The proposition also includes rules that would make pharmaceutical companies pay to clean up wastewater polluted by their products.

Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told Reuters on Wednesday that three laws are being proposed to target damaging air and water pollution. This includes a requirement for EU countries to meet new legally binding air pollution limits by 2030.

It is intended to prevent taxpayers from having to pay these costs in full, Sinkevicius said.

Once they are formally suggested, EU member states will need to negotiate and approve the new air quality regulations.

According to a Eurobarometer survey published this week, most Europeans think health conditions like asthma and cardiovascular disease are severe problems in their country because of air pollution.

Nearly half of the people who responded think air quality has worsened over the last ten years - despite studies showing it has improved. There has already been progress in cleaning up Europe’s air, however. According to the EEA report, in the early 1990s, nearly a million premature deaths were caused by fine particulate pollution. By 2005, that number had been more than halved to 450,000.

But the survey shows that European people still believe the fossil fuel industry, companies, and public authorities need to do more to promote good air quality.

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  1. Olivia27 October 2022 at 22:04

    I'm glad studies show that air pollution has gotten better. Unfortunately it doesn't feel that way. In some countries, it feels like things have gotten a lot worse than 10 years ago. And it still doesn't feel like the EU is putting their back into it and doing enough to clean up the planet as much as it could.

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  2. Anthony31 October 2022 at 21:48

    While in some countries and cities it's clear that air quality has increased and things are going in a good direction there's still plenty of others that are doing badly. We need to do much more to clean up most or all of our cities. In bigger cities things are worse than a decade ago.

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