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Europe’s pollution ‘deadlier than car crashes’

Air pollution has cut the average life expectancy of Europeans by nearly a year, and the annual loss of life is far greater than that due to car accidents, Reuters reported the European Environment Agency as saying on Wednesday.

More than 100 million people in the region also lack access to safe drinking water, the report added.

Levels of air pollution reduce life expectancy by as much as two years in the most affected areas of Belgium, the Netherlands, northern Italy and parts of Poland and Hungary, the report said.

"The estimated annual loss of life is significantly greater than that due to car accidents," the report added.

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