Air Pollution and Limitations in Health: Identification of Inequalities in the Burdens of the Economies of the “Old” and “New” EU

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to assess the scale of the impact of air pollution on the level of burdening EU economies with the consequences of chronic diseases (non-communicable diseases—NCDs) in the context of limiting the potential productivity of human resources. This study attempts to identify inequalities in this area that occur in the territory of the European Union. The scale of the impact of environmental factors, and air pollution in particular, on the level of health limitations in the labor resources of EU countries was measured by the number of the years of healthy life lost (YLL and YLD) as a result of chronic diseases. The verification of the assumption of a persistently high level of dispersion was based on an analysis of the convergence process (β and σ) in the group of EU countries in 1990–2019. The results demonstrate that the level of health restrictions caused by air pollution is diverse in the group of EU-27 countries. The inequalities observed concern, in particular, the relationship between the old and the new EU, indicating a high burden of health consequences for the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe (EU-CEE).