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Following the summit held in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago, climate change hasn’t been far from the news, but a less than welcome update from Ecologists in Action shows that while Spain has improved its ozone levels for the second consecutive year, 73% of people living in this country still breathe polluted air each and every day. The latest report by the NGO states that while ozone pollution has been greatly reduced and despite two coronavirus confinement periods, 34.6 million Spaniards continue to experience air with far more harmful ozone than what is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

 

Ecologists in Action explained that ozone doesn’t have a direct human source but rather is formed on the earth’s surface as a direct result of emissions from vehicles (particularly diesel), thermoelectric plants, certain industrial activities and intense livestock farming. It is the atmospheric pollutant most closely linked to climate change and affects more and more populations in Spain each year.

 

Due to the health crisis and a reduction in urban mobility, emissions in general took a nosedive in 2020 and 2021 following several years of an upward trend. Having said this, ozone still affected 432,000 kilometres in Spain between January and October of this year, meaning that three out of four Spaniards have breathed air with more of this pollutant than recommended by the WHO. And despite the substantial improvement, eighteen areas in seven autonomous communities, comprising ten million inhabitants, have continued to fail to meet the legal objectives established.

 

Ozone pollution is a major health problem and causes between 1,500 and 1,800 deaths in Spain each year, primarily affecting children, the elderly, pregnant women and those with chronic cardiorespiratory diseases. In 2013, the health and labour cost of ozone pollution was 5 billion euros, 0.33% of the Spanish GDP, and the worst affected areas currently are the Community of Madrid, inland Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the city of Cáceres and the industrial region of Puente Nuevo.

 

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