Preventing lung cancer cases in Europe by establishing robust EU laws on air pollution
In October 2022, the European Commission published its proposal to revise the EU legislation on air pollution, setting the annual limit value for Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) at 10 µg/m³ (reduction from the current 25 µg/m³) by 2030.
Emerging new evidence - first presented at the ESMO Congress 2022 held in Paris - demonstrated the molecular mechanism underlying the link between air pollution and lung cancer in non-smokers. Moreover, exposure to air pollution is increasingly being linked to lung cancer incidence and mortality, with more than 300,000 lung cancer deaths globally being related to exposure to ambient (outdoor) air pollution in 2019.
Given the health-related implications of air pollution, ESMO advocated for a reduction in the annual limit value for PM2.5 in the EU to 5 μg/m³ by 2030. Adopting such limit would be in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendations on air pollution.
To further support ESMO’s recommendations, new evidence was presented at the ESMO Congress 2023 on the link between air pollution and breast cancer. This new body of evidence shows that the risk of breast cancer – the third most common cancer cause of death in the EU, accounting for 7,5% of all deaths - increased by 28% when exposure to PM2.5 air pollution increased by 10 µg/m3 – approximately equivalent to the difference in PM2.5 particle concentration typically seen in rural versus urban areas of Europe.
ESMO’s response to the EU public consultation and our engagement with MEPs helped to secure the adoption in plenary (full session) of the European Parliament’s report on the revision of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directives, which reflects ESMO’s recommendations to set the annual limit value for PM2.5 at 5 µg/m³ and aligns EU air quality standards with the most recent WHO guidelines. However, the European Commission maintained its initial proposal for the interim targets of 10 µg/m³ by 2030, supported by the Council, during interinstitutional negotiations between co-legislators, which led to an agreement to include the annual limit value for PM2.5 of 10 µg/m³ in the final version of the Directive adopted in April 2024.
The adopted Directive requests the European Commission to review EU standards by the end of 2030 (and every 5 years thereafter) to assess options for alignment with the WHO guidelines and latest scientific evidence.
ESMO will engage in the aforementioned review, initially planned for 2028, of the newly-adopted EU standards to advocate for a further reduction of the annual limit value for PM2.5 to be set at 5 μg/m³ in order to help prevent new cancer cases.