The heatwave across Europe in August 2003 has highlighted the critical impact of air pollution and smog on health. Several national and local authorities took action to cut the use of cars in order to reduce harmful ground-level ozone concentrations. The cross-border nature of air pollution has lead to calls for stronger regulation at EU level. A new Directive 2002/3/EC will replace the current legislation from 9 September 2003. The directive addresses ozone in ambient air and sets long-term objectives, target values, an alert threshold and an information threshold for ozone.
The WHO estimates that 100 000 premature deaths are caused in Europe from airborne particulates as well as susbtantial increases in asthma and respiratory diseases.
The European Commission’s DG Environment has a programme called Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) which produced a briefing note on the health effects of airborne particles and a note on implementation of alert mechanisms for the air pollution thresholds