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Dirty air is killing Europeans and costing trillions. These cities prove change is possible

From London's ULEZ to Sofia's clean air zone, European cities are proving that cleaner air is achievable – but there's still much work to do.

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/09/21/dirty-air-is-killing-europeans-and-costing-trillions-these-cities-prove-change-is-possible

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00:28Welcome to the National Anthem
00:39I was diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma, of which pollution is one of my triggers when
00:45I was 14 as a runner and someone who really believes in the benefits of physical activity.
00:52I don't want to be encouraging people to get out if the air that they're breathing isn't
00:56clean and healthy and comes with its own negative side effects.
01:05It's not just for respiratory diseases, lung-related. The particles we are breathing, they go into
01:13our bloodstream and from there they can reach any organ. And our brain is the one that now
01:19we are developing more and more knowledge about how air pollution is affecting our brain,
01:25declining cognitive capacity and then even involved as well on neurodegenerative diseases
01:33like Parkinson, Alzheimer or dementia. So I think it's very important to be aware of that
01:39because the measures we can take will clean the air but it will clean as well the hospital
01:46emissions and the number of deaths we have every year due to air pollution.
02:00By 2023 we were estimated to be one of the cities with the most death attributable to the air pollution.
02:09actions being taken and new zones which limits specific vehicles and which limits heating of your home with burning were
02:20introduced and the results are already present.
02:25We have reduced the air pollution in Bulgaria. Of course not by the rate that we wish and future work
02:32is needed but significant enough to say that those measures working.
02:36We have reduced the air pollution in Bulgaria.
02:47Unfortunately it's only three months per year and definitely it should be the whole year around because the pollution by
02:57traffic is every month and we see very little seasonality.
03:03So it doesn't matter whether it's winter or summer the pollution by cars is very very strong.
03:24If people knew that this is not just an environmental issue, it's not just an economic issue, it's much more
03:31than that it's a huge public health challenge that we need to face.
03:37Otherwise the consequences are not only the almost 8 million deaths we have every year but it's the number of
03:45diseases that the pollution is causing, the cost that this represents for the health system and the fact that we
03:52are losing a lot of opportunities to create a healthy development.
03:56That means that this is nand girls數 to have to be left to achieve moreufano, things that not most of
04:02our bodies are being exposed as typical...
04:08Then you don't have to be an economic issue over a physical object, you don't have a physical habit, you
04:09can understand that we have to survive or faster and less develop a physical object...
04:10That is because it happens now once a year when you stopering with the dialogue, you'll never ever stop focusing
04:10on itself or demanding, you'll never stop, you tell us...
04:10Then you start off when itießen safely, and you're able to see the movement David's personal response to the moment
04:10that it never adds up...
04:10En streakly or even if there aren't supposed change the message to be into, and especially at the moment of
04:13the group's apartment system, fast.
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