BarcelonaAt the end of February, the 27 EU countries agreed on the basis for the new air quality directive, which should improve the health of more than 446 million Europeans. The regulations should also mean a lot of changes in Catalonia, where the data is particularly negative. We talk about it with Xavier Querol, who has a doctorate in geological sciences from the University of Barcelona, air quality advisor to the WHO and research professor at the Institute of Environmental Diagnosis of the CSIC in Barcelona.
About 300,000 people die every year because of air pollution, according to the European Environment Agency. How is it explained?
— We should be grateful to be Europeans, because we have been required to greatly reduce emissions. If we look only at premature deaths due to suspended particles [PM 2,5 i PM 10] there are 238,000, but in 1990 there were one million. We have reduced the impact of pollution by 75%. Politicians make the mistake of thinking this is an environmentalist thing, but it’s a public health issue.
We have made progress, but what remains to be done?
— It’s like when we sweep the house. If everything is full of dust, with the broom you clean the biggest one. For the rest you need more advanced technology, like a vacuum cleaner. Now we removed the one that was least difficult to remove. But we need a more complex shock plan, a good vacuum cleaner.
And more legislation? The barriers now set by the new European law proposal are higher than those recommended by the WHO.
— It is not what the WHO says, but it is an important step. The new directive incorporates the guiding values of the WHO of 2005. Now the Parliament has to vote on it. But we are twenty years late because this directive should have been approved in 2010 and will enter into force in 2030. And what has happened? In between 2021 the WHO has updated the recommendations. Countries such as Switzerland, Finland or Austria pushed for the law and created their own standard.
And in Catalonia?
— Here there are places, such as Manlleu, that have been infringing the directive since 2008, and it was thought that it was a very special issue of the plain of Osona and that’s it.
Is Manlleu the municipality with the most polluted air?
— There are three problems in Osona. First, that the region is surrounded by mountain ranges. Therefore, in winter, when we have anticyclones, there is a thermal inversion that acts as if we put a lid on it, and the pollution cannot get out. On the other hand, we have biomass burning. Especially in rural areas, it has mistakenly opted for pellet boilers. The burning of agricultural biomass is prohibited in the rest of Europe. Not here. People burn when it’s not windy to avoid fires, but that’s when it has the biggest impact on air quality.
And the third?
— It is the ammonia that comes from animal waste, especially pig manure. This gas is already bad, but when it meets other gases (nitrogen oxide or sulfur oxides), it generates PM 2.5. And this formation is accelerated by the fog. In fact, the TROPOMI satellite of the European Space Agency places Osona among the 17 most polluted points in the world in terms of ammonia.
Do rural and intermediate areas have worse air quality than the big city?
— It depends on the area of Catalonia and the type of pollutant. If we look at NO2, it’s in the big city. And there’s a bit of a particle there too. If you go to a rural area, you will have problems with particulate pollution in the winter. And you have ozone where the wind from the big cities comes. But, for example, if you go to Girona, which are all basins perpendicular to the Mediterranean, there is no problem.
And the rest of the territory?
— The intermediate situation between the Metropolitan Area and Osona is Vallès Oriental, which suffers because it has a lot of industry, a bit of biomass burning, a bit of ammonia and it is also flooded. Another focus of pollution is Tarragona. The gases produced there, due to the topography, rise up and impact Andorra and Montsec.
What did we do wrong?
— For many years, sustainability has been seen as a limitation for growth, and it is a mistake. When you reduce pollution, you are creating jobs and incentivizing people to buy a less polluting car or a new boiler. It is an engine of the economy. But intensive activity has a limit. Call it Lloret de Mar tourism, Osona pigs, or the industrial urban area of Barcelona. When you have so much activity, you have to be much cleaner.
How can we reduce emissions?
— It is necessary to increase metropolitan public transport and convert more pedestrian areas, but having reduced traffic, because otherwise what you are doing is sending it from one street to the next. The other two areas are to limit biomass burning and emissions from the agricultural and livestock sector.
2024-03-28 16:15:21
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