The coastal city of Taranto is home to Europe’s largest coal-fired steel plant. Locals know it well: the red powder settling on buildings after a gust of wind – toxic iron-ore dust – is the visible trace of decades of pollution. But the most dangerous threats are those you cannot see: dioxins, benzo(a)pyrene, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other toxic substances silently harming people’s health. Still, metres away from residential homes successive governments remain committed to keeping the steelworks running deemed “strategic for the nation and essential for Europe’s automotive sector”.

In Gijón, northern Spain, ArcelorMittal has turned a coastal city into a pollution hotspot. The steel plant, located less than ten kilometres to the south of the city centre , is one of the most polluting in Europe. Families living in its shadow report respiratory diseases, air quality being profoundly altered by industrial activities. All this does not come out of nowhere: repeated daily excesses of PM10 and PM25 particles are recorded, as well as mercury contamination and high peaks of benzene (a cancerogen gas).

In the area around Fos-sur-Mer, nearly 40,000 people breathe polluted air daily. Male residents are approximately twice as likely to develop cancer, diabetes, and asthma as elsewhere in France, and female residents are three times as likely. Fine and ultrafine particles, benzene, NOx and sulphur dioxide are part of everyday life for residents and workers: the overwhelming majority of them are produced by industrial activity. There are countless examples of illegal practices by the steel industry, with ArcelorMittal repeatedly breaching legal air-quality limits: in 2022, pollution exceeded statutory limits for 240 days.

The long black smoke rising from the chimneys of the Zenica steelworks, built at the end of the 19th century, is part of everyday life for inhabitants. They themselves know very well that Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the countries in Europe most affected by air pollution. It is the country with the highest number of deaths from air pollution in Europe, and the fifth highest in the world. Despite early promises of decarbonisation, operations in Zenica have continued for years without substantial action to reduce pollution and emissions from the plant.

The Tata Steel factories dominate the landscape near IJmuiden, just outside Amsterdam. These factories are the main source of harmful substances released into the air, linked to increased rate of health issues in the region. From beach sand to gardens, metal dust originating from the steel site is found everywhere and 150,000 people live under poisonous clouds. In the nearby village of Wijk aan Zee, 80% of the residents experience odour, dust and noise nuisance and they have an elevated risk of adverse health effects, including asthma, lung cancer and premature death.