VIENNA – Air pollution in Europe causes illnesses and hundreds of thousands of deaths, costing the continent’s governments a combined $1.6 trillion each year, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
This corresponded to nearly a tenth of the European Union’s gross domestic product in 2012, the WHO Regional Office for Europe said in its first such study for the region.
The Copenhagen-based office estimates that 600,000 people died prematurely in 53 European countries in 2010 due to fine particles emitted by vehicles and industries and from burning fuels in homes.
Air pollution causes heart and lung diseases, as well as strokes and lung cancer.
“The evidence we have provides decision makers across the whole of government with a compelling reason to act,” said WHO Europe chief Zsuzsanna Jakab.