Three major air pollutants killed almost 400,000 people in Europe in 2021, an EU report said, indicating that some of these deaths could be avoided if pollutants were reduced to levels recommended by the World Health Organization . Reuters.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has reported that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution, which particularly affects people with heart disease, will cause 253,000 deaths in the European Union in 2021. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution, the most harmful to people with diabetes, caused 52,000 deaths, and short-term exposure to ozone (O3) caused 22,000 deaths.

If European countries outside the EU are included, there were a total of 389,000 pollutant-related deaths in Europe, according to the EEA’s 2021 report published on Friday.

“Air pollutant concentrations in 2021 remained well above the levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its air quality guidelines,” the EEA report said.

“Reducing air pollution to these target levels would prevent a significant number of (pollution)-related deaths in EU member states.”

Poland, Italy and Germany accounted for the most deaths from PM2.5 in 2021, while northern European countries such as Iceland, Scandinavia and Estonia had the least impact.

According to the report, short-term exposure to NO2 and O3 had the greatest impact on mortality in Turkey, Italy and Germany.