next
previous
items
European Union flag
Home
Topics
Analysis and data
Countries
Newsroom
About us

World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines (AQGs) and estimated reference levels (RLs)

Page Last modified 26 Jan 2023
1 min read
Photo: © Tolu Olarewaju on Unsplash

World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines (AQGs) and estimated reference levels (RLs) (a)

 

PollutantAveraging periodAQGRLComments
PM10 1 day


Calendar year		 45μg/m3


15μg/m3		 99th percentile (3-4 exceedance days per year). Updated 2021 guideline

Updated 2021 guideline
PM2.5 1 day


Calendar year		 15μg/m3


5μg/m3		 99th percentile (3-4 exceedance days per year). Updated 2021 guideline

Updated 2021 guideline
O3 Maximum daily 8-hour mean


Peak season (b)		 100μg/m3



60μg/m3		 99th percentile (3-4 exceedance days per year). New 2021 guideline

New 2021 guideline
NO2 1 hour
1 day



Calendar year		 200μg/m3
25μg/m3



10μg/m3
99th percentile (3-4 exceedance days per year). New 2021 guideline

Updated 2021 guideline
BaP Calendar year 0.12ng/m3
SO2 10 minutes

1 day		 500μg/m3

40μg/m3

99th percentile (3-4 exceedance days per year). New 2021 guideline
CO 1 hour

Maximum daily 8-hour mean

1 day		 30mg/m3

10mg/m3


4mg/m3




99th percentile (3-4 exceedance days per year). New 2021 guideline
C6H6 Calendar year 1.7μg/m3
Pb Calendar year 0.5μg/m3
As Calendar year 6.6ng/m3
Cd Calendar year 5ng/m3 (c)
Ni Calendar year 25ng/m3

 

Notes: 
(a) As WHO has not set an AQG for BaP, C6H6, As and Ni, the RL was estimated assuming an acceptable risk of additional lifetime cancer risk of approximately 1 in 100 000.

(b)  Average of daily maximum 8-hour mean concentration in the six consecutive months with the highest six-month running average O3 concentration.

(c) AQG set to prevent any further increase of Cd in agricultural soil, likely to increase the dietary intake of future generations.

Sources: WHO (2000, 2006, 2021). 

Related content

News and articles

Related briefings

Briefing Europe’s air quality status 2024 Air pollution is Europe’s largest environmental health risk, causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that impact health, reduce quality of life and cause preventable deaths. This briefing presents the status of regulated pollutants in ambient air in 2022 and 2023 in relation to current EU air quality standards and World Health Organization (WHO) guideline levels.
Briefing Europe’s air quality status 2023 Air pollution is the largest environmental health risk in Europe, causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that lead to the loss of healthy years of life and, in the worst cases, to preventable deaths. This briefing presents the status of concentrations of pollutants in ambient air in 2021 and 2022 for regulated pollutants, in relation to both EU air quality standards and the 2021 WHO guideline levels. The assessment shows that, in spite of constant improvements, exceedances of air quality standards are common across the EU, with concentrations well above the latest WHO recommendations.
Briefing Europe’s air quality status 2022 Air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk in Europe, causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that lead to the loss of healthy years of life and, in the most serious cases, to premature deaths. This briefing presents the status of concentrations of pollutants in ambient air in 2020 and 2021 by pollutant, in relation to both EU air quality standards and the WHO guidelines, updated in 2021. The assessment shows that exceedances of air quality standards are common across the EU, with concentrations well above the latest WHO recommendations. Nevertheless, in 2020, lockdown measures adopted to minimise the spread of COVID-19 had a temporary impact on emissions of air pollution from road transport and led to improved air quality.

Permalinks

Geographic coverage

For references, please go to https://eea.europa.eu./publications/status-of-air-quality-in-Europe-2022/europes-air-quality-status-2022/world-health-organization-who-air or scan the QR code.

PDF generated on 23 Dec 2024, 04:44 AM

EEA Page URL QR

Tags

Filed under:
Filed under: air quality
Document Actions
The EEA is an agency of the European Union

Engineered by: EEA Web Team

Software updated on 26 September 2023 08:13 from version 23.8.18

Software version: EEA Plone KGS 23.9.14

Code for developers

Systems Status

Legal notice

Creative commons license

CMS login