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Spain: Report denounces poor air quality
The air breathed by more than 18 million people does not meet legal pollution requirements and threatens to cause serious respiratory problems say Ecologistas en Acciòn
di Staff
A recent report denounces air quality in Spain. The air breathed by more than 18 million people does not meet legal pollution requirements and threatens to cause serious respiratory problems say Ecologistas en Acciòn, the Spanish NGO who has published the detailed report on Air Quality in Spain 2006.
?The figures may be higher but regions such as Galicia and Castilla refused to submit their data? said an Ecologistas spokesperson last week. ?More people die as a consequence of air pollution than from car accidents? continued Paco Segura, coordinator for Ecologistas Transport section ? more than 16, 000 premature deaths occur every year due to pollution?.
The most contaminated areas, according to the report, are Catalunya where the most polluted cities are Barcelona and Girona and Andalucia, where Càdiz was found to have the dirtiest air.
A question of traffic
Ecologistas en Acción has blamed road traffic as the single greatest cause of air pollution and they call for urgent measures to restrict the number of vehicles.
Segura praised Barcelona?s recent policy that brings the speed limit down to 80 km?s per hour in the entire urban area but said that other Spanish cities are not following suit. He also highlights that by so doing they are breaking national law.
On the other hand, Segura also highlighted that private car use was bound to increase seeing as roads keep being built. Spain has one of the highest road : population ratios in the world, preceded only by the USA, Germany and China despite the fact that these countries are much larger and have much larger populations than Spain.
?More roads mean more cars? goes on Segura ?in 1990 there were 12 million cars, in 2005 there were more than 20,3 million?. To further worsen the situation the number of people cars carry is not increasing, while the length of journeys and car size is, which puts a greater strain on the environment.
The organisation therefore calls for a greater investment to be made into renewable energy, as well as restrictions on car use and for a more efficient public transport.
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