Ecologists in Action has denounced today that many cities in Spain, including Valladolid, fail to comply with the new guidelines of the World Health Organization about air pollution, the only scientifically recognized recommendations in the world on the quality of the air we breathe, compliance with which significantly reduces risks to people.
Thus, the recommended annual concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic pollutant whose main source in cities is motorized traffic, has risen from 40 to 10 µg / m3 (micrograms per cubic meter). For its part, the annual guide for particles below 2.5 microns (PM2.5) –the most harmful to health– drops from 10 to 5 µg / m3, when the regulations allow 20 µg / m3.
In this sense, Ecologists have recognized that many cities have made progress in reducing NO2 and PM2.5 pollution in recent years. However, the data shows that all Spanish cities currently exceed the new air quality guidelines established by the WHO, despite the sharp drop in its levels in 2020 due to the measures to combat COVID-19.
Ecologists in Action during an event in Valladolid
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In this way, and taking as a reference the last year without confinements (2019), the NO2 levels in Barcelona, Granada and Madrid quadrupled the new WHO annual guide, exceeding the current legal limit value that coincides with the previous recommendation.
In that year they duplicated the new WHO guideline for this same pollutant, in addition to Valladolid, cities such as A Coruña, Algeciras, Alicante, Almería, Avilés, Bilbao, Castellón, Ceuta, Córdoba, Cuenca, Donostia, Gijón, Girona, León , Lleida, Malaga, Murcia, Ourense, Oviedo, Palma, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Pamplona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santander, Seville, Tarragona, Torrelavega, València, Vigo, Vitoria and Zaragoza.
Cause of death
Ecologists in Action has recalled that NO2 causes each year in Spain around 7,000 premature deaths, according to the Carlos III Health Institute and the European Environment Agency, more than 200 of them in the city of Valladolid. It is an irritant gas that causes respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lowers resistance to infection. Various studies have linked the mortality of the COVID-19 disease with this air pollutant.
That is why the organization emphasizes that the significant reduction in pollution levels that the WHO considers unhealthy should be an incentive for the different governments to advance as much as possible in improving air quality. These objectives should be taken as a goal and not the legal limits set by the regulations, which do not always guarantee the protection of health. At least as long as the legislation does not get closer to scientific knowledge, which is expected to happen in 2022, with the revision of the European directive on air quality.
Low emission zones
On the European Car Free Day and in light of these data, Miguel Ángel Ceballos, spokesperson for Ecologists in Action, has asked the authorities “to consolidate the good practices acquired during the pandemic as proximity shopping, teleworking, electronic administration or staggering working hours, in addition to promoting electric collective transport and active pedestrian and cyclist mobility, redistributing urban space for the benefit of these means “.
In the case of the city of Valladolid, the environmental organization calls on the City Council to implement the planned LEZ in the historic center on January 1, and proceed to extend it in 2023 to the entire ORA area and in 2024 to the city as a whole, encompassed by the Ronda Interior and the A-62 highway. Limiting access to the center and neighborhoods of the most polluting and low-occupancy vehicles.
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