Unic Press UK: The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday, the 15th February 2017, issued a final warning to Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, for apparent laxity in solving repeated breaches of air pollution limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
Excerpts from the EC’s press release today, reads:
“More than 400,000 citizens die prematurely in the EU each year as a result of poor air quality. Millions more suffer from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases caused by air pollution. Persistently high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) caused almost 70 000 premature deaths in Europe in 2013, which was almost three times the number of deaths by road traffic accidents in the same year.
“Today’s reasoned opinion concerns persistent breaches of NO2 limit values in:
- Germany (28 air quality zones, including Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Köln);
- France (19 air quality zones, among them Paris, Marseille and Lyon);
- United Kingdom (16 air quality zones, among them London, Birmingham, Leeds, and Glasgow);
- Italy (12 air quality zones, including Rome, Milan and Turin);
- Spain (3 air quality zones, one being Madrid and two covering Barcelona).“
Road traffic is the source of circa 40% of nitrogen oxides (NO2) emissions in the EU, of which 80% of it emanate from diesel powered vehicles, the EC said.
