Health-related costs of air pollution per European citizen is €1,276 per year

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) has published a study analyzing data from 2018 of 432 cities in 30 countries (EU plus the UK, Norway and Switzerland, with total population of 130 million inhabitants) about the health-related social costs of air pollution. The document reveals that, on average every inhabitant of a European city suffered a welfare loss of € 1,276 a year owing to direct and indirect health losses associated with poor air quality. This is equivalent to 3.9% of income earned in cities.

The study quantifies the monetary value of premature death, medical treatment, lost working days and other health costs caused by the three air pollutants causing the most illness and death: particulate matter (PM), ozone (O₃) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂).

After examining all 432 European cities in the sample (48 of which are located in Spain), the social costs quantified were over € 166 billion in 2018. The average cost per city is over € 385 million. Cities with the highest damage cost per capita in 2018 are Bucharest (Romania, € 3,004), Milano and Padua (Italy, € 2,843 and € 2,455, respectively).   

The Spanish cities with the highest damage cost per capita derived from air pollution are Barcelona (€1,256), Guadalajara (€1,183) and Madrid (€1,069). The city with the lowest damage cost per capita not only in Spain but in the list of 432 cities analysed is Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with € 382 per capita in 2018.

The top cities with the highest total damage costs of air pollution in 2018 are London (United Kingdom, € 11.38 billion), followed by Bucharest (Romania, with an annual loss in welfare of € 6.35 billion) and Berlin (Germany, € 5.2 billion). The first Spanish cities included in this classification are Madrid (7^th position with € 3.4 billion) and Barcelona (17^th, € 2.2 billion).

PM causes the vast majority of costs, 82.5% on average (various pollution sources), followed by NO₂ (15% – mainly traffic) and O₃ (2.5% – from combustion).

It is worth pointing out that these proportions vary considerably between cities. In this regard, the contribution of PM2.5/PM10 to total damage costs varies from 60.1% in Funchal (Portugal), to 94.0% in Narva (Estonia). The contribution of O₃ is in general very small and varies from 0% in the Estonian cities Tallinn, Tartu and Narva, to 7.6% in Cáceres in Spain. The contribution of NO₂ varies from 4.8% in Palencia (Spain) to 34.4% in the Portuguese city of Funchal.

The CEE region has the highest rate of air pollution deaths while Southern Europe has the highest rate of chronic illnesses.