Air pollution kills 6630 people per year in Portugal and has a high economic cost. In Lisbon, poor air quality costs the city 635 million Euros annually and each person 1159 Euros. The conclusion is a study by the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA(its original acronym), a European non-profit association in the field of public health, with more than four dozen member organizations in 21 countries.
The study, released this Wednesday and available for consultation hereIn the European panorama, air pollution costs each European citizen living in a city 1276 euros a year and about 166 million euros in Europe as a whole. These figures take into account the cost of premature deaths, medical treatment, lost workdays, and other health costs caused by the three most dangerous air pollutants: particulate matter (PM), ozone (O3), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
On average, PM cause the vast majority of costs (82.5%), followed by NO2 (15%, mainly due to traffic) and O3 (2.5%, originating from combustion). The proportions vary "considerably from city to city"points out the EPHA document, where transportation is identified as a major source of urban air pollution.
EPHA looked at 432 cities in all European Union (EU) countries, plus the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland. The document states that the problem of poor air quality is felt especially in cities, and are the largest and most expensive cities where in general the costs associated with pollution are also greater. EPHA says that two thirds of Europeans live in cities and that two-thirds of European cities violate the clean air standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), air pollution is the largest cause of premature deaths due to environmental factors in Europe (every year about 400,000 Europeans die prematurely due to poor air quality) and that, even though Europe's air is cleaner today than it was half a century ago, annual assessments of air quality in Europe "consistently show that air pollution continues to pose a danger to human health and the environment". In addition to loss of life, pollution increases health costs, reduces productivity, damages soils, crops, forests, lakes and rivers, and the very homes, bridges and other infrastructure, says the EEA.
