News & Updates
Having cleaner air is in our hands
By Olaia Bronte Moreno, Pulmonology, Spain Why is clean air important? Let’s put numbers to the problem: Air pollution is the main environmental cause of premature sickness and death across the world. It is estimated that air pollution causes 3,7 million premature...
National Governments ask for a phase-out date for the sale of petrol and diesel cars
The Ambitious Nine Last month, nine member states of the European Union (EU) called on the European Commission to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, and the Netherlands wrote to the...
Why I believe clean air is important for our health
By Andrej Martin Vujkovac, MD, Slovenia Why is clean air important for our health? An average human takes roughly 20.000 breaths a day. The main reason for human breathing is, of course, to receive oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide in the body- both of which are...
New EU air quality rules can protect public health says the European Public Health Alliance
The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) has called on the European Commission to take the necessary action to improve public health as it starts the process to revise air quality standards by the end of 2022, as part of the implementation of the European Green...
All I want for Christmas is Clean Air
Air pollution, health and COVID-19 Maria Viegas, Public Health Director European Medical Students' Association (EMSA), Medical student and healthcare helper in a Portuguese hospital during the COVID-19 crisis writes why she has joined #medics4cleanair The world's and...
New poll finds Europeans do not want to go back to pre-Covid air pollution levels
11 June 2020, Brussels A new opinion poll from YouGov in 21 European cities finds a majority of urban residents across Europe do not want to see air pollution return to pre-Covid-19 levels and support profound changes in transport to protect clean air. When countries...
Over 40 million health professionals call on the G20 to prescribe a healthy recovery from COVID19
350 organisations representing over 40 million health professionals as well as over 4,500 individual health professionals from 90 different countries have written to the G20 leaders calling for a #HealthyRecovery, as they begin to plan for the aftermath of the COVID19...
Support public transport, cycling and walking, city mayors, public health and transport NGOs ask the EU
City mayors, together with public health and transport NGOs have today written to European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans calling for the EU COVID19 Recovery Package to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and ensure urban residents can continue...
Conditions caused by dirty air likely to cut COVID19 survival chances
The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) has warned today that those living in polluted cities are more at risk from Covid-19 Doctors are starting to link hypertension, diabetes and respiratory diseases, often caused or exacerbated by air pollution, to higher...
Time to translate EU ambition on clean air into action, health and environmental groups say
Eight health and environmental civil society organisations have come together to voice European citizens' concerns and have co-signed a letter to Executive Vice-Presidents Timmermans and Dombrovskis and Commissioner Sinkevičius calling on them to translate the...