New limit values for air pollutants in the EU

The European Commission has published the draft of the new Air Quality Framework Directive. The tightened limits are to come into force by 2030.

The current EU Directive on Air Quality and Clean Air for Europe (Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC) dates back to 2008. Therefore, in 2020, the European Commission launched a public consultation on revising this EU Directive as part of the European "Green Deal". This was also to align it more closely with the current recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). Now, the EU Commission has presented a proposal for a new Air Quality Directive, which must first be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council of the Member States.

Among other things, it proposes to reduce the annual limit value for particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5 fraction) by more than half by 2030, from 25 to 10 µg/m³. With these proposals, the EU's standards are approaching the WHO's recommendations. However, the WHO's limits, which are based solely on health precaution, are not fully implemented. Since October last year, the WHO has only recommended a PM2.5 guideline value of 5 µg/m³, which is one-fifth of the current EU limit.

The Commission intends to lower the annual limit for nitrogen dioxide from the current 40 to 20 µg/m³. The WHO guideline value here is only 10 µg/m³. The Commission also mentions "intermediate targets" in its proposals. In the long term, they aim to adhere to the WHO recommendation. The current draft from the Commission envisions the introduction of a "zero emissions" target by 2050. This goal is intended to ensure that air quality is improved to such an extent that air pollution is no longer harmful to human health or the environment.

What do various measures against air pollution achieve?

"It is very important that we take the proposed limits and their implementation by 2030 very seriously, with regard to clean air for all of us in Europe. The debacle surrounding the current nitrogen dioxide limit of 40 µg/m³ should not happen again: this was decided in 2008 and is still not being consistently met across Germany and Europe," says Prof. Isabelle Franzen-Reuter, Chair of the "Environmental Quality" section of the VDI/DIN Commission for Air Pollution Control.

The technical assessment of various cost-benefit analyses of different packages of measures to improve air quality in Europe also includes figures on the burden of disease and death in the population. The concept of "environmental burden of disease" (English: Environmental Burden of Disease) is particularly relevant here. Unlike indicators of individual health status, population-based measures can quantify the effects of risk factors, and in a second step, of prevention or intervention measures, for the entire population in a comparable way. For example, the positive health effects of measures to improve air quality can be demonstrated and their benefits weighed against each other.

The methodology for calculating the environmental burden of disease is also presented in a VDI status report titled "Potentials and Challenges in Using Population-Based Summary Measures in the Environment and Health Sector". It explains how health indicators are calculated and what they reveal. Furthermore, the report transparently discusses the potentials and limitations of the indicators used and points out so-called "pitfalls of interpretation". This provides, for example, practical and accessible guidance for decision-makers and the broader public on what the figures indicate and how they can be correctly interpreted and used in public communication.

The status report is being developed by experts from the health sector and science, working within the VDI "Environmental Quality" section of the VDI/DIN Commission for Air Pollution Control (KRdL). The publication of the VDI status report is expected at the beginning of 2023. It will then be available for free download at www.vdi.de/publications.