Air Pollution Continues to Threaten Public Health in Europe
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A study (Künzli et al., 2000) published recently in The Lancet revealed that roughly 40,000 people die every year from the effects of air pollution in three European countries alone, costing them some €50 billion annually (Sommer et al., 2000).
Air pollution also has a long-term, detrimental impact on health in Europe in general: it increases the occurrences of asthma attacks, bronchitis, heart attacks and other chronic pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases; it impairs the development of children's pulmonary capacity.
And air pollution continues to threaten public health in Europe despite tighter emission standards, closer monitoring of air-pollution levels and decreasing levels of certain types of air pollution.
Given this situation, the APHEIS programme has been designed to provide decision makers, environmental-health professionals and, indeed, all European citizens with a comprehensive, up-to-date and easy-to-use information resource on air pollution and its impact on public health. This will help them make more-informed decisions about the political, profes-sional and personal issues they face in this area.