In 1996 Europe adopted a general policy framework for dealing with air pollution: the air quality framework directive. In practice, this Directive is applied through a set of four pollutant-specific daughter directives. The first Daughter Directive sets air quality standards for four transport related pollutants: sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter (PM10) and lead. In cases where the concentrations of these pollutants are very high at present, EU countries must prepare action plans showing how they will achieve the obligatory air quality standards.

Human health impacts
The most serious health effects caused by air pollution are caused by particles. By entering deeply in the human respiratory tract they have the potential to aggravate heart and lung diseases and have been associated with very serious health problems including heart attacks, chronic bronchitis and asthma. The health effects are especially damaging for people with existing cardio-vascular and respiratory problems and young children.

Improving air quality - a joint responsibility
In most countries monitoring of air quality is carried out by national authorities. Regional and local authorities on the other hand have an important task in action planning and informing the public. A recent EEB snapshot report has shown that member states clearly have not done enough to implement this directive and meet the legally binding limit values in 2005. Plans have been made too late in most cases, even though the problem should have been apparent since 2002 at least. Furthermore many plans are not concrete enough and lack dedicated financing, which makes it unlikely that the measures in the plans are going to be put into practice. On the national level member states are putting in place initiatives to improve the performance of the car fleet, but at the same time some NGOs highlighted that in their countries much larger sums are invested in further road expansion and investment in road infrastructure takes priority over investment in other modes of transport.

There are a variety of transport measures to improve air pollution that can be implemented at the local level. The leaflet A Breath of Fresh Air provides NGOs and local authorities with 10 practical examples of how to counter air pollution from transport.