‘Air quality in Amsterdam and Nijmegen poor, Groningen the cleanest’

The air in Amsterdam is the most polluted of all Dutch cities. Nijmegen also has a ‘moderate’ air quality. This is evident from a Thursday published research to the amount of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide in the European air from the European Environment Agency EEA. The air in Groningen is the cleanest of all cities. The Hague, Breda, Utrecht and Rotterdam also perform relatively well in the field of air quality, according to the EEA.

Viewed across the country, the air has become a lot cleaner in recent years. In the past twenty years, the concentration of particulate matter, the biggest cause of polluted air-related health problems, has fallen by almost half. In 2018 the Health Council noted that the air in the Netherlands at that time complied with European standards ‘almost everywhere’.

Also read: In Poland, many people only go out when the app reports that the air is clean

At European level, air quality is highest in the Swedish city of Umeå. The most polluted air was measured in the Polish city of Nowy Sacz. Air quality is also low in many other Polish cities, just like in Italy. On average, air quality in Europe has improved in recent years, partly due to the corona pandemic.

Of the 323 cities surveyed, air quality in 127 places currently meets World Health Organization (WHO) standards. In those cities, there is a much smaller chance that residents will suffer from air pollution-related diseases. In 2018, an estimated 417,000 people died in Europe from the effects of polluted air.

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