According to the European Environment Agency, air pollution from fine dust, nitrogen dioxide and ozone causes 6,100 premature deaths per year in Austria, that is 69 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. In eleven other EU countries, the number of fatalities in relation to the population is lower than in Austria, the VCÖ reported in a broadcast. The VCÖ called for increased measures to reduce car and truck traffic.
“The latest data from the European Environment Agency are alarming. Air pollution is deadly, even in Austria,” said VCÖ expert Lina Mosshammer. The VCÖ pointed out that Austria does poorly in an EU comparison: per 100,000 inhabitants, the number of deaths in Austria is 69, more than twice as high as in Ireland (28), Finland (29) and Sweden (30) . In a total of eleven EU countries, the number of deaths from air pollution in relation to the number of inhabitants is lower than in Austria. And Austria also does worse than Switzerland (43 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants).
Fine dust PM 2.5, nitrogen dioxide and ozone therefore cost Austria’s population a total of 63,000 years of life, that is 715 years of life per 100,000 people. For comparison: In Sweden, at 279 years of age, per 100,000 people are around 60 percent less.
The main sources of air pollutants are traffic, industry and buildings. “It is precisely the traffic exhaust gases that are emitted in large quantities where people live. The more pollutants that come out of the exhaust, the more they get into our lungs. That is why measures to reduce traffic emissions are so important,” emphasized Mosshammer. A key factor here is the shift from car journeys to public transport and, in the case of shorter distances, to cycling and walking.