Air quality in European cities

ISTAT presents an analysis of air quality in European cities for the 2004-2008 period using data from the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) AirBase database.

Elementary data from urban background stations were combined into a single indicator – the average number of times that legally-defined concentration limits were exceeded.

The European Commission sent two advisories asking Italy to prepare an anti-smog plan to counteract the repeated violations that were being registered in air quality limits, especially for PM10.

Two sets of tables are available in Excel format in the Download area: one relates to the first/last 30 cities in the ranking mentioned in the text and the other provides insights on a group of 221 European cities.