Urban pollution in the EU – Cities have cleaner air but are still too noisy

Summary:

Air and noise pollution can harm our health, particularly in urban areas, where most EU citizens live. We checked how the selected cities implement the EU rules designed to better protect our health. We found that although air quality is improving, air quality standards either are not always met, or have only recently been met. We also found that our cities are still too noisy. We consider that the lack of EU noise reduction targets disincentivises member states to prioritise actions to reduce noise pollution. We also note that the noise reporting thresholds cover only part of the EU population that may be exposed to harmful noise. We recommend actions to reduce harmful levels of noise.

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