Exceedance of the EU human health threshold value for ozone in urban areas

This website has limited functionality with javascript off. Please make sure javascript is enabled in your browser.

Topics: Air pollution ,

Assessment made on 01 Jan 2001

Note: new version is available!

Nov 05, 2012 - Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (CSI 004) - Assessment published Nov 2012
May 31, 2012 - Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (CSI 004) - Assessment published May 2012
Aug 18, 2010 - Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (CSI 004) - Assessment published Aug 2010
Dec 28, 2009 - Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (CSI 004) - Assessment published Dec 2009
Dec 19, 2008 - Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (CSI 004) - Assessment published Dec 2008
Apr 14, 2008 - Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (version 1) (CSI 004) - Assessment published Apr 2008
Nov 03, 2006 - Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (version 1) (CSI 004) - Assessment published Nov 2006
Nov 14, 2005 - Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (version 1) (CSI 004) - Assessment published Nov 2005
Jun 01, 2001 - Exposure to fine particles above EC threshold values

Generic metadata

Classification

Air pollution (Primary theme)

DPSIR: State

Identification

Indicator codes

Geographical coverage:

[+] Show Map

Contents

Policy issue: Are Europeans effectively protected against exposure to ground level ozone?

Key messages

Ozone levels in Europe are exceeding the threshold set for protection of human health. Year-to-year fluctuations and changes in monitoring networks preclude firm conclusions on trends in population exposure; analysis of monitoring data suggests that peak ozone concentrations are decreasing, but median values are tending to increase.

Figures

Exceedance of the EU human health threshold value for ozone in EEA18 urban areas The threshold for ground level ozone is currently set at eight hours at a mean concentration of 110?3

Key assessment

Part of this fluctuation is natural, as the production of ground level ozone partly depends on special weather conditions that vary from year to year. The data is also not completely consistent, particularly before 1994, due to changes in the monitoring networks.

Despite the fluctuations, it is clear that the current limits are exceeded frequently for a large proportion of the EU's population. Estimates for 1999, for example, suggest that 42% of the population was overexposed on 1-25 days, with 12% overexposed for more than 50 days. Only the Northern European countries and Portugal had less more than 10 exceedance days. Although emissions of the substances that lead to ground level ozone are dropping (see ozone precursors), the reductions are unlikely to help meet either today's or tomorrow's targets, with north-west Europe expected to experience around 25 exceedance days per year by 2010.