Do something for our planet, print this page only if needed. Even a small action can make an enormous difference when millions of people do it!
Air pollution is a major health concern for Europeans, with 91% of the urban population still exposed to air pollutant concentrations above the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines (WHO, 2021a) and more than 300,000 premature deaths each year attributed to chronic exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) alone (EEA, 2021a). Part of this premature mortality is due to cancer: the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) considers that outdoor air pollution, PM in outdoor air pollution, and indoor air pollution from household burning of coal and biomass are linked to lung cancer. Large studies in Europe (Cesaroni et al., 2012; Heinrich et al., 2013; Raaschou-Nielsen et al., 2013; Hvidtfeldt et al., 2021; So, 2021) and elsewhere have confirmed the association between PM and lung cancer, as reflected in the WHO air quality guidelines (WHO, 2021a). Air pollution may be linked to 0.5-1% of all cancer cases in Europe (Couespel and Price, 2020) and to over 7% of lung cancers (Kulhánová et al., 2018).
In terms of cancer deaths, around 2% of all cancer deaths can be attributed to air pollution in Europe (IHME, 2020). The proportion of lung cancer deaths attributable to air pollution is much higher, with a conservative estimate of 9% (IHME, 2020) and a likelier one of around 17% (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2016; EEA, 2020c). In addition, recent studies have detected associations between long-term exposure to particulate matter and leukaemia in adults and children (Bräuner et al., 2010a; Amigou et al., 2011a; Vinceti et al., 2012a; Houot et al., 2015a; Magnani et al., 2016a; Tamayo-Uria et al., 2018a). A study investigating indoor air pollution from solid fuel use has also found an association with oesophageal cancer (Sapkota et al., 2013). Links between some air pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and other types of cancer have been hypothesised, and recent research seems to support them (WHO Europe, 2021), but the evidence is not conclusive.
In the period 2005-2019, emissions of all key air pollutants in the EU-27, including certain carcinogens, declined (EEA, 2021a). The COVID-19 lockdowns further decreased the concentrations of specific pollutants in many cities, although that drop was temporary, and pollution levels — with the relative exception of NO2 — have largely gone back to pre-pandemic levels (EEA, 2020b). The long-term decline in emissions has resulted in a gradual decrease in the concentrations of air pollutants. For instance, annual mean concentrations of PM2.5 decreased on average by 22% in the decade 2009-2018 (EEA, 2020a). This means that people are on average exposed to less hazardous levels of air pollution than before. The percentage of the urban population exposed to PM2.5 concentrations above 10µg/m1 decreased[1] from 97% in 2006 to 61% in 2019 (EEA, 2021a). Lower levels of exposure translate into a decrease in health impacts from air pollution, including cancer. There are, however, some caveats to this positive trend:
In fact, according to the current and more stringent 2021 WHO air quality guidelines, 96% of the European urban population was still exposed in 2020 to PM2.5 levels above the recommended threshold (5µg/m3)(see Figure 1). And this threshold is, as admitted by the WHO and the research community, still not safe.
Source: EEA (2021a).
The EU bases its clean air policy on three main pillars: (1) the National Emissions reduction Commitments (NEC) Directive (EU, 2016); (2) source-specific legislation for key sources of air pollution (EC, 2022a); and (3) the Ambient Air Quality Directives (EU, 2004, 2008), which set air quality standards. In 2021, the European Commission (EC, 2021)started a revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directives (AAQDs), partly to align the EU standards more closely with WHO recommendations. This is key to achieving one of the goals of the zero pollution action plan: reducing by 2030 the number of premature deaths caused by exposure to PM2.5 by at least 55% compared with 2005 levels (EC, 2022b). Two known carcinogenic air pollutants, benzene and benzo(a)pyrene are specifically regulated by Directives 2008/50/EC and 2004/107/EC, respectively, and they will also be reassessed in the context of the revision of the AAQDs. In the international context, the EU Member States work closely with other UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) member countries to control international air pollution under the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.
[1]The 10µg/m3 threshold was set in the 2005 WHO guidelines on air quality, which were in force in the period referred to.
Amigou, A., et al., 2011a, ‘Road traffic and childhood leukemia: the ESCALE study (SFCE)’,Environmental Health Perspectives119(4), pp. 566-572 (DOI: 10.1289/EHP.1002429).
Bräuner, E. V., et al., 2010a, ‘Is there any interaction between domestic radon exposure and air pollution from traffic in relation to childhood leukemia risk?’, Cancer Causes & Control21(11), pp. 1961-1964 (DOI: 10.1007/s10552-010-9608-4).
Cesaroni, G., et al., 2012, ‘Health benefits of traffic-related air pollution reduction in different socioeconomic groups: the effect of low-emission zoning in Rome’, Occupational and Environmental Medicine69(2), pp. 133-139 (DOI: 10.1136/oem.2010.063750).
Couespel, N. and Price, R., 2020,Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer, European Parliament, Policy Department of Life Policies (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/IPOL_STU(2020)642388).
EC, 2021, ‘Revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directives’, European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/revision_of_the_aaq_directives.htm).
EC, 2022a, ‘Air quality — existing legislation’, European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/existing_leg.htm).
EC, 2022b, ‘Zero pollution action plan’, European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/environment/strategy/zero-pollution-action-plan_en).
EEA, 2020a, Air quality in Europe 2020, European Environment Agency (https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/air-quality-in-europe-2020-report).
EEA, 2020b, ‘COVID-19 and the environment: explore what we know’, European Environment Agency (https://www.eea.europa.eu/post-corona-planet/explore).
EEA, 2020c, Healthy environment, healthy lives: How the environment influences health and well-being in Europe, EEA Report No 21/2019, European Environment Agency (https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/healthy-environment-healthy-lives) accessed 1 April 2021.
EEA, 2021a, Air quality in Europe 2021, European Environment Agency (https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/air-quality-in-europe-2021/).
EU, 2004, Directive 2004/107/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2004 relating to arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air (OJ L 23, 26.1.2005, pp. 3-16).
EU, 2008, Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (OJ L 152, 11.6.2008, p. 1-44).
EU, 2016, Directive 2016/2284/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2016 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants, amending Directive 2003/35/EC and repealing Directive 2001/81/EC (OJ L 344, 17.12.2016, pp. 1-31).
Heinrich, J., et al., 2013, ‘Long-term exposure to NO2 and PM10 and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a prospective cohort of women’, Occupational and Environmental Medicine 70(3), pp. 179-186 (DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2012-100876).
Houot, J., et al., 2015a, ‘Residential proximity to heavy-traffic roads, benzene exposure, and childhood leukemia — the GEOCAP study, 2002–2007’,American Journal of Epidemiology182(8), pp. 685-693 (DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwv111).
Hvidtfeldt, U. A., et al., 2021, ‘Long-term exposure to fine particle elemental components and lung cancer incidence in the ELAPSE pooled cohort’, Environmental Research193, p. 110568 (DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110568).
IHME, 2020, ‘Global Burden of Disease data set’, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (https://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool).
Kulhánová, I., et al., 2018, ‘The fraction of lung cancer incidence attributable to fine particulate air pollution in France: Impact of spatial resolution of air pollution models’, Environment International121, pp. 1079-1086 (DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.09.055).
Magnani, C., et al., 2016a, ‘Road traffic pollution and childhood leukemia: a nationwide case-control study in Italy’,Archives of Medical Research47(8), pp. 694-705 (DOI: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2017.02.001).
Prüss-Üstün, A., et al., 2016, Preventing disease through healthy environments: a global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
Raaschou-Nielsen, O., et al., 2013, ‘Air pollution and lung cancer incidence in 17 European cohorts: prospective analyses from the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)’,The Lancet Oncology14(9), pp. 813-822 (DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70279-1).
Sapkota, A., et al., 2013, ‘Indoor air pollution from solid fuels and risk of upper aerodigestive tract cancers in central and eastern Europe’,Environmental Research120, pp. 90-95 (DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2012.09.008).
So, R., 2021, ‘Long-term exposure to air pollution and liver cancer incidence in six European cohorts’,International Journal of Cancer149(11), pp. 1887-1897 (DOI: 10.1002/ijc.33743).
Tamayo-Uria, I., et al., 2018a, ‘Childhood leukaemia risk and residential proximity to busy roads’, Environment International121(Pt 1), pp. 332-339 (DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.08.056).
Vinceti, M., et al., 2012a, ‘Leukemia risk in children exposed to benzene and PM10 from vehicular traffic: a case-control study in an Italian population’, European Journal of Epidemiology27(10), pp. 781-790 (DOI: 10.1007/s10654-012-9727-1).
WHO, 2021a,Global air quality guidelines: Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, Guideline, World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034228) accessed 5 March 2022.
WHO Europe, 2021,Human health effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as ambient air pollutants: Report of the Working Group on Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons of the Joint Task Force on the Health Aspects of Air Pollution, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/environment-and-health/air-quality/publications/2021/human-health-effects-of-polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbons-as-ambient-air-pollutants-report-of-the-working-group-on-polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbons-of-the-joint-task-force-on-the-health-aspects-of-air-pollution-2021).
Cover photo © Kouji Tsuru on unsplash.com
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/environmental-burden-of-cancer/air-pollution or scan the QR code.
PDF generated on 09 Nov 2024, 03:03 AM
Engineered by: EEA Web Team
Software updated on 26 September 2023 08:13 from version 23.8.18
Software version: EEA Plone KGS 23.9.14
Document Actions
Share with others