Toytown Germany

The talk of the town this week is the city's air pollution levels. In particular the levels of fine dust. The Merkur has an article this morning with the alarmist headline Tödlicher Staub (in English "Deadly Dust"). The reason for all this panic is that on 1st January this year new EU legal guidelines came into force. According to these rules the airborne dust concentrations should not exceed a certain limit on more than 35 days per year. In Munich this limit has been exceeded on 34 days already, and it's not even the end of March yet. If you ignore the headlines, however, and look at the hard facts, it becomes clear that the situation in Munich is not dangerous in the slightest.

Airborne dust is measured according to an international standard called "PM10". This means "Particulate Matter" which is between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in size. Such particles are 25 to 100 times thinner than a human hair. They are made up of soot, smoke, dust, and pollen. A PM10 value of 100 indicates that 100 micrograms of particulates are suspended in 1 cubic meter of air.

The EU guidelines for Germany require that the PM10 values should not exceed 50 on more than 35 days per year.

The following table shows that the average PM10 levels for Munich are around 30 to 50.

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/more_dust.gif[/img]

The above statistics are yearly averages. Dust levels are in a constant state of flux from day to day - depending on season, wind direction, and traffic. Munich's Landshuter Allee has the highest levels of fine dust in Germany. The levels there regularly exceed a PM10 of 100. Yesterday they were up at 114.

According to ANY PAGE about PM10 levels and health effects, however, any you'll see that a PM10 values of up to 150 cause no health concerns whatsoever. At levels between 155 and 254 there is an increased likelihood of asthma for those who are particularly sensitive. Significant risks of lung disease only begin at a PM10 value of 355.

airinfonow.org / particulates
fraqmd.org / Effects Guide

Thus, the PM10 levels in Munich, although higher than the legal limits, are not dangerous. Even at peak times. The legal limits have obviously been set with a large safety margin.

Having said all this, efforts to keep harmful dust an an absolute minimum can only be a good thing. The most obvious counter measure is to reduce traffic by keeping vehicles out of the city center or fitting them with exhaust filters. What steps the Munich city council will take is yet to be seen.

Some air quality comparisons between Munich and other cities:

Beijing 377
Mexico City 279
Bombay 240
Athens 178
Berlin 50
Munich 40
London 35 (londonair.org.uk)

For detailed reports on Munich air quality see:muenchen.de / luftmuenchen.de / luftreihalteplan.pdf

More news reports (in German):SZ - Musterprozess um FeinstaubwerteSZ - Giftiger FeinstaubMerkur - Tödlicher Staub

The fact that the air quality in London is better than Munich and Berlin is commendable, although I cant say for sure if thats what I felt !!

Dust is only one factor in air quality. Other pollutants are Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulphur Dioxide, and Carbon Monoxide.

I've no idea what the stats are for Munich and London, but it could be that overall, across all pollutants, the situation in London is worse than Munich. It's just that there is less dust in London (probably because it rains more).

There has been a big European study (Clean Air for Europe - CAFE) which clearly states that these particles are not that harmless:
"Due to PM concentrations, in 2000, some 3 million life years have been lost in EU25. This
is equivalent to about 288 000 premature deaths. Both of these health impacts are based on,
and thus consistent with the RAINS model, which calculates the total (not annual) change in
life years. Due to PM concentrations, there are also an additional 560 infant premature deaths
from PM in the year 2000. Overall, PM concentrations have a much more important effect
than ozone with respect to mortality. In addition, PM leads to larger numbers of annual
morbidity effects than ozone. The morbidity effects of PM ranges from around 83 000 series
cases of hospital or cardiac hospital admissions (in the year 2000) to much larger numbers of
less serious effects, for example some 25 million respiratory medication use days, and several
hundred million restricted activity days."
You can find more detailed information on the homepage

forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/env/cafe_baseline/library?l=/cafe_steering_groups/steering_21-22_february&vm=detailed&sb=Title