Ecosystem health and services Ecosystems, when exposed to airborne substances and atmospheric deposition, are highly susceptible to pollutant pathways. Rising pressures, particularly from increasing drought risks, migration due to environmental and political stresses within and beyond the pan-European region, delayed implementation of more adapted and sustainable land-use practices and production standards, may result in unchanged or even increasing strains on ecosystems throughout the region.


Climate change-related situations such as drought events and heat spells with dust and sandstorms already result in more particle re-suspension and transport. At the same time, rising ambient temperatures drive higher plant emissions (volatile organic compounds) and increase photochemistry rates, leading to ozone formation. Current ozone concentrations have been estimated to reduce potential wood and crop production in Europe by up to 15 per cent (EEA 2015f).


Recovery of ecosystems from acidification is occurring in parts of Europe, but excess deposition of nitrogen is now a major cause of the loss of Red List species, where it also stimulates dominant species such as grasses, bushes, algae and nettle. Reducing emissions of ammonia and nitrogen oxides is thus considered more cost effective than additional nature management to protect threatened species.


Human health and economic costs Air pollution strongly impacts human health. It has been known for many years that air pollution causes or exacerbates cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, respiratory and allergic diseases, as well as cancer (Dominici et al. 2006). It is related to the risk of stillborn, premature or low-weight births. Recent findings indicate that other widespread diseases such as diabetes are also associated with human exposure to airborne pollutants, such as particulate matter (Eze et al. 2014).


There are significant economic costs associated with air pollution arising from premature deaths, the costs of health care for the sick due to poor air quality, and the loss of


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productivity (Holland 2013). The WHO Regional Office for Europe and the OECD estimated that the costs caused by air pollution in the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region was about US$1.6 trillion in 2010. Therefore, in addition to health benefits, significant cost savings can be achieved through air pollution abatement (WHO 2015). In the EU, the health-related external costs from air pollution ranged between €330 billion and €940 billion in 2010, and are expected to be reduced under a business-as-usual scenario (baseline projection) to €210-730 billion in 2030 (considering € prices in 2005) (EC 2013d). The corresponding economic benefits of the proposed EU air policy package can be monetized, resulting in about €40-140 billion in savings, while the costs of pollution abatement to implement the package are estimated to reach €3.4 billion per year in 2030. The impact assessment states that the monetized benefits therefore will be about 12-40 times higher than the costs (EC 2013d).


Outdoor air More than 500 000 premature deaths were caused in 2012 due to ambient air quality (EEA 2015f). Particles are potential carriers of health-affecting chemicals, including trace metals and metallo-organic fuel additives, and organic chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, persistent organic pollutants, pesticides and semi-volatile organic compounds. Effects on human health depend on the physico-chemical properties of the particles, although PM10


concentrations are the only metrics currently regulated by national and international laws. Recent findings underline the adverse health effects of smaller particles including submicron particles.


and PM2.5 While annual mean concentrations of PM10


outdoor air are decreasing in most EU countries, there are no clear trends for nitrogen oxide, black carbon and ultrafine particle concentrations (Birmili et al. 2015). These pollutants are closely related to urban traffic.


and PM2.5


Ultrafine particles and soot-containing particles (black carbon) belong to these particle size classes. These air pollutants are emerging contaminants in both scientific knowledge and public awareness. A number of recent epidemiological studies


in mass


GEO-6 Assessment for the pan-European Region


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