3.E. Workshop: Air pollution health impacts and costs in EU accessing countries

Air pollution is detrimental for health, climate, national economies and well-being in the European Union (EU) and in EU candidate countries. In many locations air quality levels are above the EU or national legal standards and/or the guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization. Very often EU neighbours and countries in the process of accessing the EU are disproportionately more affected by the impact of air pollution than others. The newest global evidence is suggesting that human health is affected even at low pollution levels below the current European standards and WHO guideline values. In 2021, the WHO published new air quality guidelines structured in Intermediate targets and final targets which are lower than the previous recommendations published in 2005. Estimating the costs of air pollution requires analysis of extensive data sets by means of econometric and statistical methodologies. In this session is discussed the assessment at country level for Europe and worldwide which is particularly valuable for estimating statistical value of life (VSL) and the value of a life year (VOLY) for counties that have not been the focus of global estimations so far. Moreover, this workshop adds valuable new information on the Western Balkans and Ukraine that could be used in systematic efforts to develop evidence-based air pollution reduction plans and to track progress toward reducing air pollution and consequently the health impacts. The studies included in this session represent valuable efforts to acquire evidence in support of further alignment of national air quality policies with those of the EU. KEY MESSAGES: • The newest evidence supports efforts to further aligning the Western Balkans and Ukrainian air quality policies with those of the EU and contribute to national and local implementation. • The meta-analysis of existing literature leads to the development of econometric models for estimating VSL and VOLY at country level worldwide.