Air pollution – the silent killer

Some 9 million people die worldwide from air pollution. Every year.

Air pollution has not surprisingly been classed as a “public health emergency” and dubbed the “silent killer” by the World Health Organization (WHO). And for good reason. Air pollution can have devastating effects on human health. Pollutants and fine dust particles inhaled via the respiratory tract enter the bloodstream and are carried to every organ where they cause chronic or acute damage to practically every cell in the human body. To this day, many doctors are unaware or insufficiently aware of these far-reaching consequences which have been documented in over 70,000 scientific studies.

In Switzerland, the limit values for emissions of air pollutants have been legally binding under federal law since 1986 and the authorities must take measures if these limits are exceeded.

According to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Swiss emission values are in line with the WHO’s 2005 recommendations. What the FOEN doesn’t say is that the WHO has since revised its recommendations downwards. This means that, with regard to Particulate Matter (PM2.5) for example, the Swiss limit value of 10µg/m3 for is now twice as high as the limit value of 5µg/m3 set by the WHO.

But let’s be quite clear, there is no safe limit for particulate pollution. PM2.5 pollution is especially alarming, as numerous studies have linked it to serious health consequences and premature deaths, even at low levels that comply with current WHO guidelines.

In September 2023, the European Parliament agreed to adopt the WHO’s new values. In Switzerland, the Federal Commission for Air Hygiene (‘EKL’) recommends that the Federal Council adjust the values for six pollutants, namely: sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, PM2.5 and PM10 to the new WHO guidelines, but makes no mention of soot and ultrafine particles (PM0.1) which are also highly toxic.

In 2020, the European Environment Agency cautioned that polluted air poses the greatest threat to our health.