Car trouble: air quality is still a health issue despite drop in nitrogen pollution Jason Hawkes/Getty
The fumes belched out by road vehicles are deadly – but levels of one harmful component, nitrogen dioxide, may already have peaked in Europe.
“It’s not air quality solved or anything, but it is positive,” says lead author Stuart Grange at the University of York, UK.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a polluting chemical released by petrol and diesel vehicles. Each molecule contains one nitrogen atom and two oxygen atoms. NO2 is blamed for tens of thousands of deaths in Europe each…
