Europe's air quality can still be deadly despite progress, EEA says

FILE PHOTO: People gather at a lookout point as a general view of the city of Barcelona is seen in the background, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Barcelona, Spain May 6, 2020. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Many European citizens are exposed to harmful and sometimes illegal levels of pollution despite progress to improve air quality in recent years, the European Environment Agency said in a report on Monday.

Air pollution poses the biggest environmental health risk in the European Union, where in 2018 about 379,000 premature deaths were linked to exposure to particulate matter, 54,000 to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and 19,000 to ground-level ozone.