The European Commission on Tuesday welcomed European Parliament's vote to approve legislation proposed by the commission to cut harmful vapor emissions from fuel stations.

The new directive will ensure that harmful petrol vapor which escapes during the refueling of cars at service stations is captured and recycled.

"This directive will improve the protection of European citizens' health by contributing to the attainment of agreed EU air quality standards for two harmful pollutants -- ground level ozone and benzene.

The rapid agreement reached by parliament and Council (of Ministers) on the basis of the commission's proposal from last December underlines the EU's continuing commitment to tackling air pollution at source," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.

The directive will require so-called Stage II petrol vapor recovery technologies to be fitted to petrol pumps at all service stations with an annual petrol throughput greater than 500 cubic meters when they are newly constructed or substantially refurbished.

All service stations situated underneath residential accommodation will also need to install this equipment if their throughput is above 100 cubic meters per year (corresponding to about six cars filling up each day). The largest existing stations with an annual throughput greater than 3,000 cubic meters will also have to adopt the technologies by 2018 at the latest.

Inside a car's petrol tank, petrol vapor exists above the liquid petrol. When the car is refueled this vapor is displaced and escapes to the atmosphere. Stage II petrol vapor recovery captures this escaping vapor. This is done by creating a vacuum to suck back the vapor through the dispensing hose and nozzle, either to the station's underground storage tank or directly back to the fuel pump. This latter technology is newer and does not require any modification of the underground pipe work of the service station.

Petrol vapor contains a mix of hydrocarbons including benzene, which is a human carcinogen with no known safe threshold. An air quality limit value for benzene will enter into force in the EU in2010.

Hydrocarbons also react in the atmosphere to make ground-level ozone pollution, which can be transported over hundreds of kilometers in the air.

In contrast to the ozone layer in the stratosphere, which protects humans from harmful ultraviolet radiation, ozone at ground level is harmful both to human health and ecosystems. Human exposure to ozone has effects ranging from irritation of the respiratory system to inflammation of the lungs and, in acute cases affecting the most vulnerable people, even death. No safe level of exposure to ozone has yet been determined in the EU. Regarding the environment, ozone damage is the most serious regional air pollution problem affecting forests, vegetation and agricultural crops in Europe.