© Envato
The good news is that overall pollution from traffic and industry has been decreasing in Luxembourg in recent years. However, levels in some municipalities remain worryingly high.
NO2, or nitrogen dioxide, is a highly toxic gas that can cause a variety of problems, including eye, nose, and throat irritation, an increased risk of asthma attacks, and other more or less serious respiratory tract diseases. Unfortunately, NO2 is often present in the environment due to its emissions from road traffic and industrial activities. As a result, the levels of this hazardous gas remain dangerously high in many areas.
The Environment Agency recently measured NO2 levels at 112 locations in 33 municipalities.
The first piece of good news is that no location exceeded the 40 µg/m3 limit in 2022. However, not all communes are on the same level, and several "display values very close to the limit value, notably in Remich, Echternach, and Differdange, but also in Esch/Alzette, Hesperange, and Luxembourg City."
This is illustrated in the graph below:
Increased traffic and more electric vehicles
Another positive development is that NO2 levels in the air have been decreasing in recent years. "There has been a gradual decline in annual averages since 2018, with a particularly dramatic drop in 2020 and 2021, linked to measures put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic," the Environment Agency notes.
However, "by 2022, most averages had generally returned to levels seen in 2020." The Agency explains that "the reduction of emissions from road traffic through the modernisation of the vehicle fleet with the development of new EURO standards and electric vehicles is partly hindered by a general increase in road traffic, which has resumed in 2022."
The full report is available on www.emwelt.lu (in French). The data for each station is also available on géoportail, under the theme "environment."
