Delays in cleaning up EU air will cause thousands more early deaths, say health experts

Respiratory scientists say inaction will ‘widen the inequality gap’ between eastern and western Europe

Proposed delays to EU air pollution limits will mean hundreds of thousands more people die early and will “widen the inequality gap” between eastern and western Europe, a group of public health experts have warned as EU negotiators thrash out key rules to clean up the air.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set guidelines for how many tiny particles and how much toxic gas can dirty the air, but stressed that no level of pollution is safe to breathe. Doctors writing in the International Journal of Public Health want the limits met by the end of the decade, but the European parliament wants to wait till 2035, the European Commission wants to set weaker limits for 2030 without setting a date to align with the WHO, and the EU Council wants to let poorer countries wait till 2040.