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BACKGROUND Outdoor air pollution causes approximately 400,000 premature deaths in Europe every year according to the European Commission. In addition, it causes serious diseases for millions of Europeans. A premature death due to air pollution means an average loss of ten years of living. Thereby, about 4 million life years are lost annually in the EU due to air pollution. The associated socio-economic health costs amount to approximately 500 billion euros annually.
in the EU. Pollution from residential burning of mainly wood causes about 60,000 premature deaths in the EU every year according to the World Health Organisation. The number of healthy life years lost is around 1 million a year. The associated socio-economic health costs are estimated to be almost 75 billion euros annually. In Denmark air pollution with fine particles is the most health damaging problem causing about 4,000 premature deaths and 3-4 million sick days every year. The associated socio-economic health costs are around 10 billion euros annually. Danish pollution sources contribute to about 25% of the pollution with fine particles while 75% of the pollution comes from abroad and from international shipping.
Figure 1 shows life years lost in the EU caused by air pollution with fine particles. Prior to death, people often suffer many years from severe disease. This means that the loss of healthy life years is significantly larger than the number of life years lost. In addition to the health damages comes damage to crops, the natural environment, buildings, etc. Air pollution is thereby the most expensive environmental problem
The EU Commission’s estimate for health impacts, in line with the
Danish estimate, is mainly based on air pollution with fine particles (and ground level ozone and NO2, which causes much less damage). In this estimate it is assumed that all particles are equally harmful regardless of their chemical composition. Thereby, pollution from wood burning in Denmark contributes with about 50% of all health damages from Danish pollution sources corresponding to a total health cost in Denmark of more than one billion euros a year. This makes pollution from wood burning the most expensive environmental problem in Denmark harming Danes several times more than fine particles from domestic road traffic.
In addition, recent research indicates that soot particles from, among others, wood burning seem to be more harmful than inorganic particles formed in the atmosphere from ammonia, sulphates and nitrogen oxides. Furthermore, wood burning is a key source to many other toxic pollutants (see page 5). Thereby, air pollution from wood burning can be much more damaging than pointed out above.
Figure 1: Number of life years lost in the EU due to air pollution with fine particles -30°
-20°
-10°
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Years of life lost (YOLL) 50°
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150010° km
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Source: European Environment Agency, 2013.
POLLUTION FROM RESIDENTIAL BURNING
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Pollution from residential burning causes about 60,000 premature deaths every year within the EU
