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Air pollution
Why should we care?
Atmospheric pollution has been one of the major initial drivers of environmental protection policies in Austria. For two decades since the late 1970s, forest decline linked to high sulphur emissions in central Europe and acid rain made the protection of the environment a top-ranked concern of both public opinion and national policies. As a consequence, sulphur dioxide emissions in Austria were reduced by more than 80%, more than in any other European country.
Since 1990, the main attention has switched to combating health and vegetation damage caused by tropospheric ozone. In recent years, the focus has turned to health risks related to exposure to particulate matter. PM10, NO2 and tropospheric ozone can be regarded as those widely encountered air pollutants that are on the one hand most relevant for human health and/or impact on ecosystems, on the other hand showing most exceedances of limit values and other thresholds. Furthermore, eutrophication caused by excess deposition of nitrogen has been identified as a threat to biodiversity.
Despite various successful measures to reduce emissions of air pollutants, exposure to air pollutants is still a considerable threat to human health, vegetation and ecosystems. It was estimated that exposure to particulate matter could reduce life expectancy up to one and a half years at the most polluted zones in Austria.