One in five deaths from cardiovascular disease in Europe could be prevented by mitigating environmental risks such as air pollution, the EU’s environment agency warned on Monday.
Addressing extreme temperature changes, exposure to toxic chemicals, pollution and other factors is “crucial for prevention,” the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in a new report.
It said that such factors are estimated to have been behind at least 18% of the more than 1.7 million people who died of cardiovascular disease in Europe in 2022.
They include 130,000 people dying annually from the consequences of fine particulate matter pollution, and 115,000 deaths recorded due to extreme cold or heat, the report said.
Such deaths could be prevented by raising public awareness on environmental stress factors, reducing transportation noise and strengthening chemical regulations, the EEA argued.
The European Union is on track to meet one of its zero-pollution goals for 2030, having reduced air-pollution-related deaths by 55% since 2005, the agency said.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the European Union, with at least six million new cases diagnosed each year, costing the EU nearly 282 billion euros ($325 billion), the EEA said.
