Small airborne particles cause up to 200 premature deaths a year in Finland.
For years people have been encouraged to help protect the environment. Among the most common suggestions have been to switch from petrol-powered vehicles to diesel and to replace oil-fired heating with bio-fuels.
There is, however, a downside. Diesel engines and burning wood release solid and liquid particles into the air that are a threat to health.
A joint study by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and the National Public Health Institute have shown that every year up to 200 Finns die from cardiac and pulmonary complications caused by these particles. Professor Jaakko Kukkonen of the FMI considers it a serious issue in the Finnish context. He points out that evidence of premature deaths caused by small airborne particles was not seen until this decade.
Particle pollution also wafts in on winds from eastern and central Europe. Clouds of industrial and traffic pollution from abroad, combined with local emissions mean that air quality is at its worst in bigger cities in southern parts of the country.
Researchers believe that the level of particles in the air may fall in the future, but slowly, and not enough is yet known about all the sources of this pollution.
So re-thinking of what measures really do promote air quality is still needed.
"The impact of biofuels is not well known. An increase in diesel engines may even increase the level of particle emissions, so this is a complex question," says Jaakko Kukkonen.
