WRITTEN QUESTION E-2651/99

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

(12 January 2000)

Subject: Air pollution in Rome

At a convention held in Rome by the Higher Institute for Health figures on smog pollution in Rome were released. The data revealed that air poisoning causes 760 hospital admissions per year in Rome, 600 for cardiovascular diseases and 160 for respiratory illnesses. Those most at risk are children aged between 0 and 14. During periods of high ozone pollution an increase of 5,5 % can be seen in admissions of children in this age band.

In the light of the above:

1. Are there any Europe-wide studies on urban pollution?

2. Are there any relevant directives?

3. Are there any studies on the level of ozone pollution found in other European capital cities?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(25 February 2000)

There are a number of reports and studies giving an overview about the air pollution levels in Europe.

Under Council Directive 92/72/EEC on air pollution by ozone(1) the Commission publishes annual reports about the ozone levels measured in the Community. They include an assessment of the ozone pollution against the thresholds set out in the directive. The latest version, covering the summer of 1999 and the year 1998, is available on the Commission's website (http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/air/ozonerep.htm).

Additionally, the Commission produced a consolidated report Tropospheric Ozone in the European Union(2) which drew conclusions from several years measurements of ozone in the Community. It also contains a chapter on the effects of ozone exposure on human health, including an estimate of the hospital admissions in Member States attributable to ozone pollution.

Further information on air pollution in Europe can be found in the reports of the European environment agency (EEA)(3) with a chapter on tropospheric ozone and specifically on the urban environment. Very recently the EEA presented its report Environment in the European Union at the turn of the century containing an overview on air pollution concentration in a number of large European cities(4). The Organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) performed a study comparing the air pollution level in European cities with levels found in cities in the United States and Japan(5).

On risk assessment, a great deal of work has been done in the APHEA project (Short-term effects on air pollution on health: a European approach to methodology, dose response assessment and evaluation of public health significance), funded within the third and fourth framework programme on research and development. Effects from exposure to various pollutants, including ozone and fine particles, were investigated in 15 European cities. The World health organisation (WHO) recently published its report

Overview of the environment and health in Europe in the 1990s(6) which contains, among other aspects, a quantification of the links between health status and environmental factors, such as air pollution.

The Framework Directive on Air Quality (96/62/EC)(7) requires Community wide assessment of air quality. Limit values for certain pollutants and target values for ozone are to be set in daughter legislation. Member States have to draw up action plans and programmes so as to attain these limit values within a given period. A first daughter Directive (1999/30/EC)(8) contains a set of limit values for sulphur dioxide, fine particles, nitrogen dioxide and lead. A proposal for a second daughter directive(9) on limit values for benzene and carbon monoxide has achieved first reading in the Parliament and a common position has been politically agreed in the Council. The Commission is currently developing legislation covering several heavy metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).

As far as ozone is concerned, a daughter directive for ozone will repeal the current ozone Directive 92/72. The Commission proposal(10), together with a directive setting national emission ceilings for the precursor substances of ozone, forms a Community wide strategy to combat ozone pollution. Its objective is to bring about tangible improvements of the ozone pollution, for example more than 70 % reduction by the year 2010 of the ozone exposure above the guideline level for human health of the WHO.

A large amount of research on photochemical ozone levels in Europe has been supported by the Environment research programme. Worthwhile mentioning as regards acute air pollution problems in those regions are the Medcaphot project (Mediterranean campaign of photochemical tracers transport and chemical evolution) which investigated the air pollution of the Athens area, and a group of projects which performed similar investigations in various cities of the Spanish and Italian coasts.

(1) OJ L 297, 13.10.1992.

(2) OPOCE, ISBN 92-828-5672-0.

(3) Europe's Environment: The Second Assessment (OPOCE, ISBN 92-828-3351-8).

(4) OPOCE, ISBN 92-9157-202-0, figure 3.12.6.

(5) Advanced Air Quality Indicators and Reporting Methodological Study and Assessment, ENV/EPOC/PPC(99)9/FINAL available on http://www.oecd.int/env/online-soe.htm).

(6) ISBN 92-890-1169-6.

(7) OJ L 296, 21.11.1996.

(8) OJ L 163, 29.6.1999.

(9) OJ C 53, 24.2.1999.

(10) COM(1999) 125.