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. 2024 Mar 13;15(1):2094.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46103-3.

Population exposure to multiple air pollutants and its compound episodes in Europe

Zhao-Yue Chen  1   2 , Hervé Petetin  3 , Raúl Fernando Méndez Turrubiates  4 , Hicham Achebak  4   5 , Carlos Pérez García-Pando  3   6 , Joan Ballester  4
Affiliations

Population exposure to multiple air pollutants and its compound episodes in Europe

Zhao-Yue Chen et al. Nat Commun. .

Abstract

Air pollution remains as a substantial health problem, particularly regarding the combined health risks arising from simultaneous exposure to multiple air pollutants. However, understanding these combined exposure events over long periods has been hindered by sparse and temporally inconsistent monitoring data. Here we analyze daily ambient PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and O3 concentrations at a 0.1-degree resolution during 2003-2019 across 1426 contiguous regions in 35 European countries, representing 543 million people. We find that PM10 levels decline by 2.72% annually, followed by NO2 (2.45%) and PM2.5 (1.72%). In contrast, O3 increase by 0.58% in southern Europe, leading to a surge in unclean air days. Despite air quality advances, 86.3% of Europeans experience at least one compound event day per year, especially for PM2.5-NO2 and PM2.5-O3. We highlight the improvements in air quality control but emphasize the need for targeted measures addressing specific pollutants and their compound events, particularly amidst rising temperatures.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Validation of estimated pollutants.
Comparison between observed and model-estimated PM2.5 (a), PM10 (b), NO2 (c), MDA8 (maximum daily 8 h average) O3 (d) concentrations from 2003 to 2019 under spatial cross-validation.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Spatial Distribution and Trends of air pollution in Europe.
17-year Mean Population-Weighted Concentrations of estimated PM2.5 (a), PM10 (c), NO2 (e), and MDA8 (maximum daily 8h average) O3 (g) (Unit: μg/m³), and its Average Annual percentages Changes (in %, calculated using Theil-Sen slope dividing mean estimates) (b, d, f, h).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Population exposure to short-term air pollutants in Europe.
Annual unclean air exposure time (Unit: Days, presented by bar plots) exceeding WHO Daily Limits, and the population (%) in short-term clean air areas (depicted by the blue line) for PM2.5 (a), PM10 (c), NO2 (e), and MDA8 (maximum daily 8 h average) O3 (g) in Europe. The spatial distribution of 17-years average annual unclean air exposure time (b, d, f, h). Short-term clean air areas here indicate those regions with 17-Year average annual unclean air exposure time Less Than 4 Days (WHO standard).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Population exposure to long-term air pollutants in Europe.
Annual Population in long-term clean air areas (million, depicted by bar plots) and annual concentration (μg/m³, represented by blue line) in Europe for PM2.5 (a), PM10 (b), NO2 (c), and MDA8 (maximum daily 8 h average) O3 (d).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. Composition changes of multi-pollutant compound episodes in Europe.
The composition of annual compound unclean-air exposure days for multiple air pollutants across 17 years (a), with further focus on three pollutants combinations (b).
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