Relationship between Directive 2008/50/EC and other EU legislation
WHO Guidelines
All these measures taken by EU and by Member States considerably reduced air pollution in EU. However, in particular due to increased traffic and economic activity, the reduction was less than anticipated, and scientific findings demonstrated in particular the considerable health risk which comes from PM10 and PM2.5. The World Health Organization (WHO) made the following Air Quality Guidelines (2005), in order to see the health risk for humans taken care of:
| Sulphur dioxide | 500 microgram/m³ not to be exceeded for more than 10 minutes 20 microgram/m³ 24-hour average (mean) |
| Nitrogen dioxide | 40 microgram/m³ annual mean 200 microgram/m³ 1-hour-mean |
| Ozone | 100 microgram/m³ daily 8-hour mean |
| Particulate matter | PM10 20 microgram/m³ annual mean 50 microgram/m³ 24-hour mean PM2.5 10 microgram/m³ annual mean 25 microgram/m³ 24-hour mean |
As can be seen, these figures are much stricter than those of Directive 2008/50/EC. European Commission admits in its Clean Air Programme for Europe that at present, "air pollution is the number one environmental cause of death in the European Union, responsible for 406.000 premature deaths, ten times more than from road traffic accidents". EU's different suggested and intended measures are likely to reduce the annual premature deaths in EU by 2030 only by about half. This means in concrete terms that by 2030 there will be some 200.000 premature deaths due to air pollution, about five times higher than from road traffic accidents (if those figures remain stable). It is thus without doubt that a serious problem for human health and the environment continues to exist, despite the present and future EU air quality legislation.
The average figures must not disguise, though, that there are considerable differences in air quality within EU. This is due to a great number of different factors, including geography, air and weather conditions and etc. However, one important factor is the determination of national, regional and local authorities to become active against the contamination of air and to enforce the application of existing provisions; town and country planning, in particular as regards traffic; citizens' involvement and readiness to contribute to not accepting air pollution as a case of "force majeure" and to insist in fighting it.