Clean air for health: Deliver on disease prevention through revised air quality standards

On the eve of the 2024-29 EU policy cycle, the newly formed EU Healthy Air Coalition (EUHAC) held a policy brief on opportunities for disease prevention, economic savings through revised air quality standard.

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Air pollution is the top environmental threat to people’s health across the European Union, leading to an unacceptably high burden of disease with hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and hundreds of billions of euros of costs.

Everyone is vulnerable to harm from air pollution and our level of vulnerability is outside of individual control, as it evolves with age, health condition, socio-economic status, as well as where we live, study, or work.

Yet through the targeted policy measures to urgently prevent air pollution at source, most of the health and economic impacts of air pollution are preventable, contributing also to much needed climate change mitigation.

On 24 April, the European Parliament gave the green light to the AAQD trilogue deal, paving the way for Council to cast its final vote. Given the level of health and economic urgency of this matter, it is important that the new law is published without delay in the Official Journal and that Member States start transposing the new directive into national law, so that people across the EU can experience its benefits.

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The EUHAC brings together non-for-profit health expert voices in the EU to advocate for clean air and better health for all. EUHAC founding members are the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), the European Cancer Leagues (ECL), the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA), the European Lung Foundation (ELF), the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and Mutualités Libres.

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