Madrid (EFE).- The entire population of Spain was exposed in 2022 to “unhealthy levels of pollution”, in a year in which air quality worsened compared to 2020 and 2021 due to increased temperatures and low rainfall , but, above all, due to the upturn in traffic and economic activity.
According to the annual report of Ecologistas en Acción, based on measurements from 780 pollution control stations spread over 132 areas of Spain and which incorporates data from the main airports and ports, last year, the entire Spanish population and 92% of the National territories were exposed to “unhealthy levels of contamination” after the end of the covid restrictions of the two previous years.
Pollution in Spain, a worrying situation
However, although in 2002 there was a significant increase in the levels of suspended particles (PM10 and PM2.5) and more nuanced levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and tropospheric ozone compared to the two previous years, these two pollutants did not reach the concentrations registered in the years prior to the pandemic.
The significant increase in the levels of suspended particles from North Africa and of nitrogen dioxide concentrated in the “intense traffic in cities” reflects “the worrying situation that air quality is going through in Spain”, accentuated in 2022 by ” the warmest and driest records since at least 1961”, stressed the coordinator of the report, Miguel Ceballos, in its presentation to the press.
Heat waves and lack of precipitation
The three heat waves suffered during the summer and the lack of rainfall “shot up ozone concentration levels”, the third factor to be combated along with dust and nitrogen dioxide in a context in which climate change, “despite not being the cause, aggravates and hinders the impact of contamination”, Ceballos pointed out.
If the maximum values recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) are taken as a reference, “the polluted air affected the entire national citizenry and 463,000 square kilometers, 92% of the territory.”
However, in terms of the thresholds that the long-term objective of protecting the vegetation of the European Union aspires to, the number of those affected is reduced to “7.6 million people and 95,000 square kilometers of extension”, which means that In 2022, four out of five Spaniards breathed air that would not comply with the new legal standards proposed by the EU for 2030.
Respiratory and cardiovascular diseases due to air quality
The absorption of poor quality air causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases “suffered mainly by children, the elderly, individuals with conditions and pathologies and pregnant women”, remarked the head of the Air Quality Area of the environmental organization, Paco Segura.
In this sense, “up to 25,000 people die prematurely from this problem, 15 times more than from traffic accidents,” according to Segura, who has warned that measurements at the gates of educational institutions show “the disturbing risk” that air assimilated by the students exceeds “twice the pollution parameters that are considered legal”.
Promote sustainable mobility
Given this, the person in charge of International Ecologists in Action, Nuria Blázquez, has urged the promotion of sustainable mobility and an alternative to conventional mobility, the adoption of clean production that relies on energy savings and renewable energies, and the implementation of low emission zones. in “the 150 cities where they should already be operational, when currently 10 are not exceeded.”
By areas, the report indicates that PM10 particles presented the worst situation in the last decade in the Canary Islands. Despite the general collapse of NO2 by 20% compared to the average level between 2012 and 2019, Barcelona once again exceeded the annual legal limit and Madrid matched it.