Air quality standards

Page Last modified 05 Aug 2021

1 min read

Topics: Air pollution

The European Union (EU) has developed an extensive body of legislation which establishes standards and objectives for a number of pollutants in air.

Air pollution

Menu

Data centre

Subtopics

Explore air pollution data: Updated information on Europe's air quality and air pollutant emissions

Air pollution data centre

The EU's air quality directives (2008/50/EC Directive on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe and 2004/107/EC Directive on heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air) set pollutant concentrations thresholds that shall not be exceeded in a given period of time. In case of exceedances, authorities must develop and implement air quality management plans. These plans should aim to bring concentrations of air pollutants to levels below the limit and target values.

Selected EU standards and the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines are summarised in the table below. These apply over differing periods of time because the observed health impacts associated with the various pollutants occur over different exposure times.

The WHO guideline values are set for the protection of health, and are generally stricter than the comparable politically agreed EU standards.