Unos 7.6 million Spaniards, es decir, el 16% of the population (or uno de cada seis), breathed in 2022 a highly contaminated area that exceeded the legal limits of the EU. If it’s two million more people who were in this situation the previous year, that’s what happens information from Ecologistas en Acción published this Tuesday —which analyzes 780 official medicine station— is due to the increase in traffic between the pandemic and the effects of the climatic environment. “El año pasado hubo un repunte about a los dos años con restricciones, sobre todo en cuanto a particulas, que alcanzan los niveles más altos de la última década,” reported Miguel Ángel Ceballos, information coordinator. The situation is very bad if we keep in mind the limits of the Organization Mundial de la Salud (OMS), much more strict: with these parameters, the totality of the population breathed unhealthy area.
The quality of the area has escalated back to the previous years, with a significant increase in the levels of suspended particles (PM₂,₅ and PM₁₀), it is believed that the medicine of these particles is insufficient in the majority of stations. The troposférico ozone increased, but was maintained for the debajo de los niveles de 2019 —the legal incumplimientos will be concentrated in Madrid y Cataluña—. Algo similar to where it occurs with nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), which grew moderately; in this case, Barcelona is the only Spanish urban area that respects the legal limit of 40 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) of NO₂; Madrid bordeó ese limit sin llegar to overcome it. Precisely los incumplimientos de Madrid y Barcelona motivated that a final of the past year the Tribunal de Justice de la Union Europea fined Spain for the bad quality of the air in its ciudades.
Y ello pesa a que los legal limits of contaminants his todavía muy laxos. For example, if the EU allows an annual exposure of 40 (µg/m3) of NO₂, the WHO considers that we have no more than 10. mitad la exposición máxima recommended anual. In fact, the European Commission is discussing new legal limits that must meet the cities, in the middle of the road between the current events and the recommendations of the WHO.
It informs by combining the results of the main contaminants, but además holds in mind both the proposals limits for the EU and the recommendations of the health body. “In NO₂, only has a legal overrun, the estación del Eixample de Barcelona, y the estación de la plaza Elíptica de Madrid quedó en 39.7, a unas decimas de superarla. In return, with the new limit proposed by the EU, almost all large cities exceed it. And if we comply with the health recommendations, 60% of the population breathes a cantidad insanitaire from this contaminant. Así that the situation is worrying”, summarizes Ceballos.

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In addition, the expert says that the climatic climate is influencing various ways in these data: ausencia de precipitations has generated an increase in the episodes of polvo de África, which are transformed into contaminant particles. Mientras, las tres olas de calor del verano, sober todo la de julio, the levels of tropospheric ozone, a contaminant linked to solar radiation, have disappeared. In summary, our climate crisis poses más difícil luchar contra contamination”.
Paco Segura, an expert in the field of ecological organization, has asked to get serious about this question: “Cardiorespiratory and pulmonare enfermedades emporan with contamination, and affect all children, vulnerable mayors and populations. It is estimated that 25,000 people fall in Spain for this reason, 15 more road accidents. If pollution is blamed, he will also die more for this cause”. In this sentiment, he asked the administrations to alert the public when there are spikes of contamination so that they do not go up to the street to exercise, and to take more measures to reduce private traffic, the main cause of the bad quality of the air in the city.
For her part, Nuria Blázquez, from the área Internacional de la misma entidad, urged the Presidencia Española de la EU —which trudges in July— to be ambitious at the time of negociar the future legal limits of contaminants, ahead of which Madrid and La Catalonia has called for a moratorium. Mientras llega ese momento, se pueden tomar medidas: “Necesitamos plans de emergencia para reduce the tráfico drásticamente en los picos de contamination, porque eso salva vidas. We also want to fight against structural contamination, to achieve private traffic, by boosting sustainable mobility (going, by bike and public transport) and enhancing a proximidable urbanism, also by fomenting the energy horror and renewable energy” , he resumed. She also requested the ayuntamientos that place them in the trade before their zones of low emissions, such as the law obliges them.
Pollution in puertos and aeropuertos
El informa also analyzes the repercussions of air and sea traffic in the main aeropuertos and puertos del Estado. According to the official data, Ecologists conclude that these installations could have a significant repercussion on the quality of the air of the cities in which they are located, for the reputation of air navigation and cruising in 2022. In the ports of Alicante, Barcelona , Carboneras (Almería), Escombreras (Murcia), Santander y Tarragona exceed the legal limits of PM₁₀, por el movimiento y el almacenamiento al aire libre de graneles sólidos. Meanwhile, the Madrid Barajas airport has caused numerous exceedances of the legal ozone standards in the Corredor del Henares.
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