Glossary
Air pollution affects both health and the environment. They can make people sick and shorten life expectancy. They also cause plant damage, corrosion, pollution, eutrophication, acidification and climate change.
Traffic causes, among other things, air pollution of gases and particles from combustion in the engine as well as particles from wear and tear of brakes, wheels and the road surface.
Road traffic emissions are often higher in our urban areas, and in neighbourhood buildings, the air mixes slowly. Emissions from traffic also depend on the proportion of studded tyres, driving conditions and the proportion of vehicles that have just started when the engine and exhaust gas cleaning have not reached normal operating temperature. For these, emissions can be 100 times higher than from vehicles with fully heated engines and exhaust gas cleaning.
Air pollution from traffic has decreased sharply since the 1990s, but concentrations of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone are still unacceptably high in many places.
