Fresh air: How Swedish municipalities work to achieve the environmental quality goal of ”fresh air” and what needs they have

Air pollution has a negative impact on people that can lead to serious respiratory problems, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. These issues can result in a shortened lifespan and premature death. In Sweden there are approximately 7600 deaths each year due to air pollution and approximately four million deaths have been estimated to occur worldwide but this number is increasing every year. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the Swedish municipalities worked and what needs they had to achieve the environmental quality goal of ”fresh air”. A questionnaire was made which was sent out as a web survey to all 290 municipalities in Sweden. The result of this study showed that medium-sized and large municipalities worked in a greater extent with the environmental quality goal than small municipalities. It was more common to involve traffic planning in the work with air quality questions in large municipalities than the other municipalities. Traffic regulation efforts and public transports are main factors mentioned to improve air quality. A majority of small and large municipalities felt that there are limitations in the work to achieving the goal where mainly resources and traffic are mentioned. About half of small and large municipalities and a third of small municipalities considered themselves to need more support in the form of resources, different guidance and information. This study indicates that it may be difficult to reach the environmental quality goal within some municipalities and more work will probably be required before the goal is achieved