According to the European City Air Quality Viewer, an online tool using comparative figures to measure air quality across various European cities by collecting information from monitoring stations, the air quality in Athens ranks in the 290th position among 372 European cities examined.
The air quality in Athens is graded as “moderate’ by the European Environment Agency, with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations measuring 14.2 μg/m³, a mere 15 μg/m³ under the threshold that would classify it as poor.
The cities are ranked from the cleanest to the most polluted based on average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations over the past two years.
Fine particulate matter is defined as particles that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5).
Fine particles in the air (measured as PM2.5) are so small that they can travel deeply into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs, causing short-term health effects such as eye, nose, throat, and lung irritation, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, and shortness of breath.
Uppsala in Sweden is the best city in terms of air quality in Europe, with Slavonski Brod in Croatia taking the bottom spot as the most polluted city in the continent.
Six of the top countries with the cleanest air are located in Scandinavia.
