Madrid/Oviedo, June 20 (EFE).- Air pollution rebounded last year in Asturias due to the intense heat and lack of rain attributed to climate change and due to the end of mobility restrictions that were applied due to the covid-19 pandemic, according to the annual report prepared by Ecologistas en Acción.
The report, which is based on the analysis of the data obtained by 67 measurement stations distributed throughout the community, concludes that “the entire Asturian population and territory were exposed last year to unhealthy levels of contamination.”
According to the results of this analysis, the air quality in Asturias worsened compared to the years 2020 and 2021 with “a significant increase in ozone levels and more nuanced particles in suspension” (PM10 and PM2.5) and dioxide of nitrogen (NO2), although these two pollutants did not reach the usual concentrations in years prior to the pandemic.
Five stations, above PM10 levels
In the case of PM10 particle levels (less than 10 microns), these legal limits were exceeded at five stations, two in Avilés (Matadero and Portería) and three in Gijón (Avenida de la Argentina, El Lauredal and Santa Cruz). .
The Ecologists in Action report takes as a reference the maximum values of contamination recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the long-term objective to protect the vegetation of the European Union.
According to these thresholds, the contaminated air affected in 2022 “the entire population and territory of Asturias”, although if the standards of the regulations are taken, more lax than the recommendations of the WHO, “there would be no population that would have breathed polluted air or surface exposed to levels of pollution that damage vegetation”.
Environmentalists call for improvement plans
However, the air that seven out of ten Asturians breathed would not comply with the new legal standards proposed by the European Union for 2030, in the ongoing review process of air quality regulations.
Ecologistas en Acción recalls that air quality improvement plans are mandatory under current legislation, but regrets that “in many cases they do not exist, and in others they are ineffective due to a lack of political will.”
Regarding Asturias, the organization considers that the plans approved by the Principality of Asturias for Avilés and Gijón “have not solved the particle pollution problems”, especially in the western area of the largest city in the community.
Pollution rose throughout Spain
According to the Ecologistas en Acción report, the entire Spanish population was exposed in 2022 to “unhealthy levels of pollution”, in a year in which air quality worsened compared to 2020 and 2021 due to rising temperatures and scarcity. of rains, but, above all, due to the upturn in traffic and economic activity.
The study, based on measurements from 780 pollution control stations spread over 132 areas of Spain and incorporating 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.
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.
Ozone levels “shot”
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.
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.
Up to 25,000 deaths per year
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”.
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. EFE