Health impacts from traffic related air pollution in Danish urban areas

In most of the European cities air pollution has changed in recent years; previously the most serious problem was sulphur dioxide and soot from minor domestic heating plants; this has largely been solved by introduction of cleaner fuels and change in infrastructure. Now the increasing traffic emissions, notably of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, with the ensuing photochemical air pollution, attract most attention. Denmark has, for a series of geographical and meteorological reasons, relatively clean air. In urban areas, however, where the emission density is high and the dispersion of pollution is limited, impacts on human health and well-being must be considered. In the planning of a rational abatement strategy, including emission and air quality standards, it is not sufficient to determine pollution levels, it is also important to investigate to what extent people are actually exposed to them. Further, it is necessary to establish the relative contributions from various human activities.

近年来，欧洲多数城市的空气污染状况已发生转变：此前最严峻的污染问题为家用小型供暖设施排放的二氧化硫（sulphur dioxide）与烟尘（soot），而随着清洁燃料的推广应用及基础设施的改造升级，该问题已在很大程度上得到解决。如今，日益增长的交通排放——尤其是氮氧化物（nitrogen oxides）与挥发性有机化合物（volatile organic compounds）的排放——及其引发的光化学空气污染（photochemical air pollution），已成为最受关注的环境议题。由于一系列地理与气象因素，丹麦的整体空气质量相对优良。然而在城市区域中，由于污染物排放密度较高且扩散（dispersion）受限，必须充分考量空气污染对人类健康与福祉的影响。在制定包含排放与空气质量标准（emission and air quality standards）在内的合理减排策略（abatement strategy）时，仅确定污染水平是远远不够的，还需深入探究人群实际暴露于这些污染物的程度。此外，还需明确各类人类活动的相对贡献占比。