Do You Need an Air Mask in Europe?

We often think of air masks as unpleasant necessities only in countries far away and with dire air pollution issues, such as China and India. But would European citizens benefit from wearing one, as well?

New data from the European Environment Agency (EEA) suggests that perhaps we should start wearing the masks closer to home, too. 85% of people living in urban areas are exposed to damaging levels of contaminants, while almost half a million premature deaths across the continent can be attributed to poor air quality on an annual basis.

Alarming statistics

The EEA estimate that as many as 467,000 are dying untimely deaths as a direct result of air pollution. This figure is broken down into three principal contaminants: particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ground-level ozone (O3).

According to figures from 2013 (the most recent available), PM2.5 claimed the lives of around 430,000 people across Europe. As a very fine particle with a diameter of less than 0.0025mm, PM2.5 can easily infiltrate our lungs and even our bloodstream, wreaking havoc on our cardiovascular and respiratory systems and causing a host of other ailments around the body.

Meanwhile, NO2 and O3 are thought to cause 71,000 and 17,000 premature deaths, respectively. Allowing for the fact that these contaminants will overlap in their mortality rates, the EEA have come up with the 467,000 figure.

Worst offenders

The European country with the poorest air quality is Bulgaria, while Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Cyprus are not far behind. Despite the implementation of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) in January 2013, these countries still rely on coal for the majority of their energy needs which emits exorbitant levels of pollutants into the air.

In particular, Bulgaria suffers from the output of its coal plants, with health bills stemming directly from this source believed to cost the national economy as much as €4.6bn (£3.9bn) every single year.

For comparison, the UK is believed to spend upwards of £20bn on health bills arising from poor air quality, which accounts for around 16% of its annual budget for the NHS. While it might perform better than some of its mainland counterparts, 40,000 Britons are still dying every year from outdoor air pollution.

How does Europe fare compared to the rest of the world?

While European outdoor air quality is nothing to shout about, it outperforms many developing countries when it comes to indoor air quality. Southern Asia and Africa in particular endure torrid death rates attributable to indoor air pollution, most commonly caused by the combustion of wood, animal dung or other contaminating sources inside their houses.

In terms of outdoor air pollution, four of the Stans have the worst levels in the world, with Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan top of the pile. Following them is Egypt and China, who have long wrestled with serious air quality issues but have made recent strides towards addressing the problem.

“Rich countries are getting much better in improving the quality of the air,” explained Dr Carlos Dora, an expert with the World Health Organisation (WHO). “Poorer countries are getting worse. That is the overall trend.”