Air quality 2014: Nitrogen dioxide now ranks as pollutant Nr. 1 | Umweltbundesamt

In 2014 only ten percent of measuring stations located near traffic did not comply with the limit value for particulate matter (PM10) which has been in effect since throughout the EU since 1999; the daily mean value for PM10  at those sites was above the allowable 50 µg/m3 on over 35 days. The World Health Organization is advocating a stricter annual limit on particulate matter of 20 µg/m3 on average. Based on this, 48 percent of measuring stations would exceed the limit value. Maria Krautzberger said: "It is the growing number of wood-fired heating installations in particular which have a negative impact on particulate pollution. The share of wood-fired heating systems which contribute to particulate pollution can amount to up to 25 percent, especially in the winter months. Emissions from wood-fired systems now exceed the amounts of particulate matter which come from road traffic exhaust gases."

About half of the measuring stations located near road traffic measured nitrogen dioxide levels above the allowable annual mean value of 40 µg/m3. Experience of past years has shown that this number of stations will increase significantly when additional data are taken up in the statistics in May 2015 from 124 measuring stations where technical difficulties have prevented evaluation of data up to now. Maria Krautzberger said: "To get nitrogen dioxide exceedences under control, the new EURO 6 emission standard must in fact result in lower emissions from real traffic. Many automotive manufacturers have only been able to guarantee that in laboratory trials."
Although there were no ozone peak levels last summer, there were exceedences of target levels at about six percent of all measuring stations. The target level for daily 8-hour ozone stipulates it may not exceed 120 µg/m3 on more than 25 days per calendar year (based on a three-year average).