European doctors welcome the confirmation of revised EU air quality rules
Today, the Council of the EU formally adopted the revised EU Ambient Air Quality Directive, setting new air quality standards for pollutants to be reached by 2030, which are more closely aligned with WHO guidelines.
This is a major step towards clean air for better health as air pollution is the largest environmental threat to human health, causing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in addition to multiple serious health conditions such as lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and asthma.
CPME, as a member of the EU Healthy Air Coalition, looks forward to working together for a most health protective implementation of the revised directive. EU member states will have two years to transpose it into national law.
The evaluation and revision process of the directive started in 2018, and CPME adopted its position on the following year.
‘’European doctors welcome the finalisation of the EU air quality directive revision and look forward to working together for its most health protective implementation.’’