A team of scientists headed by Professor Jos Lelieveld of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Professor Thomas Münzel of the Mainz University Medical Center has recently revealed that air pollution shortens the average life expectancy of Europeans by about 2 years.1 According to the study, around 120 people per 100 000 population die prematurely from the effects of air pollution on a global scale. The corresponding figure for Europe stands at 133 per 100 000 population, which thus exceeds the global average. They also demonstrate that cardiovascular diseases are the cause of death in at least half the incidents (Figure 1).