Four out of five Spaniards have breathed air contaminated by ozone. The central Government and twelve autonomous regions are failing to meet their legal obligations, having not drawn up the plans required by law to improve air quality in the worst-affected areas.
More than 37 million people in Spain breathed ozone-polluted air in the spring and summer of 2016. A report on ozone pollution published today by Ecologists in Action concludes that 80% of the population and 92% of Spanish territory have been exposed this year to levels of ozone exceeding the limits set by the World Health Organisation. The causes of this problem include the prevailing meteorological conditions; climate change; the increase in traffic; fraud relating to automobile emissions; and the government’s support of polluting energy sources instead of renewables. This systematically affects the population’s health, as well as crops and natural areas.
The report on ozone, published by Ecologists in Action for the first time this year, analyses data gathered between 1st January and 15th October 2016 from 455 official measuring stations located throughout the country. It presents comprehensive data on ozone pollution by autonomous region, by area and by measuring station.
Among the main findings, the following stand out:
- Tropospheric ozone is the atmospheric pollutant which has the greatest effect on Spain’s population and territory each year. In 2016, despite the economic crisis, its levels have generally remained steady, with some variation across the territory.
- The report by Ecologists in Action takes as its reference the maximum level recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), according to which 37.3 million people in the Spanish state (80% of the population) and 464,000 square kilometres (92% of the territory) have been affected by ozone-polluted air in 2016. In other words, four out of five Spaniards have been breathing air with a level of ozone higher than the maximum recommended by the WHO.
- If we take as a reference the target value established by Spanish and European law, which is less strict than the WHO’s recommended limit, the population which has been breathing air containing more ozone than permitted by law is 10.2 million, or 22% of the total. This is 0.7 million fewer people than in 2015, but 3 million more than in 2013 and 2014. That is to say, one in five Spaniards has been breathing air which fails to meet the currently established national and European legal standards for ozone contamination.
- Ozone is a very complex pollutant which does not have a direct human source, but which forms in the lower reaches of the atmosphere in the presence of solar radiation, through the combination of other ‘precursor’ contaminants emitted by road traffic, large thermoelectric power stations, and certain industrial processes. It is therefore a secondary pollutant which affects suburban and rural areas under the influence of urban pollution, particularly during spring and summer.
- Although the sustained level of ozone pollution in 2016 is primarily a consequence of prevailing weather conditions, principally the intense summer heat and considerable atmospheric stability, its recent development is very probably related to the upward trend in average summer temperatures and to the extreme weather conditions (heatwaves) resulting from climate change.
- Ozone pollution should be treated as a high-priority public health problem. According to the most recent estimates from the European Environment Agency, 1,800 premature deaths are caused every year in Spain by exposure to levels of ozone pollution such as those recorded in most areas of Spain in 2016. Those most affected are children, elderly people, pregnant women and people with chronic cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses.
- The public health costs resulting from ozone pollution are around 5,000 million euros per year, or 0.33% of Spanish GDP, according to the World Bank. This is without taking into account the cost of the damage caused to crops and natural ecosystems.
The information made available to citizens by the public authorities is neither sufficient nor appropriate given the gravity of the situation. Two decades after the passing of the first legislation relating to ozone pollution, in 2016 there are still several autonomous regions (Extremadura, Galicia and the Basque Country) where the local authorities have not informed the population that ozone pollution has exceeded the ‘information threshold’.
Air quality improvement plans to reduce ozone pollution are required by current legislation. However, a dozen autonomous regions (Andalucia, Aragon, the Balearic Islands, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and Leon, Catalonia, Valencia, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra and the Basque Country) have still not drawn up any such plans. This led to the presentation in June of a lawsuit against the Kingdom of Spain to the European Commission, which joins the ongoing legal proceedings at the Commission regarding Spain’s failure to comply with limits on nitrogen dioxide and particle pollution.
The main avenues for action to reduce ozone contamination are a reduction in motorised traffic, a reduction in the need to travel long distances and the development of better public transport. It is also necessary to make provision for pedestrian and bicycle transit in cities; to adopt the best available industrial techniques; to replace organic solvents with water; and to drastically reduce the generation of electricity in thermal power plants, particularly those run on coal.
We must substantially increase the scientific information available at regional, state and continental level about the dynamics of ozone, improving our knowledge of how it forms and accumulates. However, the insufficiency of the information we currently have about ozone should not be used politically as an excuse for failing to tackle well-known precursor sources, using the measures provided by law.
In an attempt to compensate for the lack of information from the public authorities, in summer 2015 Ecologists in Action carried out an awareness-raising campaign regarding tropospheric ozone, focused on Catalonia, the Southeast (Almeria and Murcia) and the Central area (Madrid and the adjacent regions of Castile-La Mancha and Castile and Leon). Four information days have been held, a travelling exhibition has visited around twenty different locations, and various activities have been scheduled in educational centres and associations.
The full ozone report can be downloaded here: http://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/IMG/pdf/informe-ozono-2016.pdf