Europe's dirty air

The European Environment Agency (EEA), the EU's environment watchdog has said air pollution is "the single largest environmental health hazard in Europe." Around 467,000 premature deaths in 41 European countries were linked to air pollution in 2013 blaming coal and biomass burning industries, power plants and households for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths across Europe.

The report drew on monitoring data from more than 400 cities between 2000 and 2014. Despite improvements, about 85 percent of EU urban residents in 2014 were exposed to particle pollution at levels deemed harmful to health by the World Health Organization which has stricter standards than Europe.