The heat wave triggers ozone pollution

The heat wave triggers ozone pollution

In addition to improving information, Ecologistas en Acción calls for restrictions on transportation and industry to reduce the severity of the current episode of high pollution.

The intense heat wave that the Iberian Peninsula has been suffering since the weekend is causing ozone levels in the air to skyrocket, due to the combined effect of high temperatures and polluting emissions from road traffic, maritime and air transport. and the greater production of electricity in thermal power plants, due to the use of air conditioning.

In a third of the 500 stations that measure ozone in Spain, the objective established by regulations to protect health is being exceeded. And in Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura and the Community of Madrid we have now been above the legal limit for almost a week, given the passivity of the regional and local administrations, which still have not drawn up the mandatory plans to improve the quality of the air with respect to ozone.

The maximum contamination has been recorded until yesterday in the Barcelona stations of Tona and Vic and in the Madrid stations of Algete, Coslada, San Martín de Valdeiglesias and Torrejón de Ardoz, as well as in the Burgos stations of Medina de Pomar and Alavesa of Valderejo, greatly influenced by the urban pollution of Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao, respectively. In all of them the information threshold for the population has been exceeded, reaching a maximum of 194 micrograms of ozone per cubic meter of air, in Vic.

Only part of the Cantabrian coast and the Canary Islands are currently being spared from the ozone pollution episode, which highlights the growing importance of climate change in the worsening of situations of high atmospheric pollution in summer, due to the progressively greater frequency, duration and virulence of summer heat waves.

The objective value for the protection of human health is established by regulations at 120 micrograms of ozone per cubic meter of air, measured in periods of 8 hours, and should not be exceeded more than 25 days a year. For its part, the information threshold for the population is set at 180 micrograms of ozone per cubic meter of air, as an hourly average.

The anticipation of exceeding the information threshold obliges the regional authorities to warn the people most sensitive to air pollution, such as children, the elderly, pregnant women or people with respiratory or cardiovascular problems, to protect themselves by avoiding In the central hours of the day and in the evening, any physical effort and outdoor exercises. They must also report on the expected evolution of the contamination, the affected areas and the duration of the episode.

However, the Junta de Castilla y León, the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Community of Madrid and the Basque Government have limited themselves to disseminating routine warnings once the exceedances have occurred, which are insufficient to protect the health of the most affected population, such as They are girls and boys, older people, pregnant women and people with chronic cardiorespiratory diseases.

For its part, exceeding the target value for the protection of human health requires the development of plans to improve air quality that structurally reduce summer ozone levels, by limiting polluting emissions from transportation and industry. , especially in the days before episodes like the one we are experiencing.

Ecologists in Action denounces that neither the central government nor the governments of the twelve autonomous communities in which the legal ozone objectives have been failed to meet in the last decade have drawn up the mandatory plans to improve air quality to reduce this pollutant, and When they have been formally approved (as in Castilla y León and Extremadura) these plans have proven ineffective due to the lack of ambition in the planned measures.

Tropospheric ozone, also known as “bad” ozone as opposed to that in the stratosphere, is a secondary pollutant produced by the reaction between sunlight and nitrogen dioxide and hydrocarbons emitted by automobiles and some industries.

By inhalation, it causes an increased risk of acute respiratory diseases and reduced lung function, as well as aggravation of cardiovascular pathologies. The European Environment Agency (EEA) estimates between 1,500 and 1,800 premature deaths annually in Spain as a result of exposure to ozone levels such as those recorded these days. Ozone, in addition to people, is also toxic to vegetation, damages forests and reduces crop productivity.