New research tries to quantify the impact of surface ozone on premature mortality in Europe, with researchers calling for local and global action on air pollution. Most of the surface ozone that leads to premature deaths in Europe comes from beyond the continent’s borders, according to a new study. Researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), with the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and the Barcelona Supercomputer Center, calculated the impact of imported ozone across 813 regions in 35 European countries.
They found that roughly 60 per cent of all deaths attributable to ground-level ozone (O3) came from outside Europe’s borders. Just under 12 per cent of deaths attributable to the air pollutant were caused by national sources of pollution, the researchers added. Ground-level ozone comes from the chemical reaction between pollutants from cars or power plants reacting to sunlight.
It’s different from the ozone layer higher up in the atmosphere, which protects us from the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation. The researchers analysed data from May to October over a two-year period, when surface ozone is at its highest level. They used numerical models to “track and trace the precursor emissions, mainly nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds,” and calculate how they are dispersed in the atmosphere, according to study co-author Dr Oriol Jorba from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
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