• Public Health.Air pollution: the death that is breathed
  • Investigation: Ayuso says that "nobody has died" because of the contamination and the CSIC corrects it

Criticism rains about the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, for her statements that minimize the effects of pollution on health. Since he said, in an interview in the Cadena Ser, that "nobody has died" because of air pollution, many experts have come to the forefront of his words with reliable data and scientific evidence in his hand.

One of the first agencies to respond to Ayuso has been the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) which, through twitter, recalled that a recent international study has confirmed the relationship between pollution and the risk of mortality. Moreover, according to this study conducted in 652 cities, exposure to poor quality air, even if it is small concentrations of urban air pollution, increases the risk of premature mortality.

Pedro Duque , Minister of Science, also answered the president of the Community of Madrid through social networks. "Public policies must always be based on the certainties that only science gives us. We can reliably measure the reduction in life expectancy caused by pollution, and that must be reflected in the priorities: let us do what most fosters the general good," He pointed out through Twitter, where organizations such as Greenpeace or different specialists in Pulmonology and Public Health, among others, have also spoken. All of them stress that the damage caused by pollution on human health is objective and proven.

A few days ago, María Neira, Director of the Department of Public Health and Environment of the World Health Organization (WHO), said in this newspaper that, although not seen with the naked eye, pollution is a "murderer" who floats in the air: "The individual is not able to detect that there is a high level of pollution. Obviously, people with existing pathologies, such as asthmatics, will detect it much earlier, as well as those who exercise physics that requires an important respiratory capacity, but it is not a toxic substance that we see or touch. That is why we call it the invisible killer in WHO, because many times we are not conscious as an individual and that does not protect us as it would be advisable " .

According to the figures handled by WHO, environmental pollution causes more than four million premature deaths per year (they increase to seven if other sources of pollution are also considered). In the world, says the UN agency, nine out of 10 people breathe polluted air to a greater or lesser extent.

This same year, a study published in the European Heart Journal led by researchers from the University of Mainz (Germany) estimated 800,000 premature deaths that occur every year in Europe due to pollution. These estimates, which double the previous ones, represent an average two-year reduction in life expectancy for each country.

Most of these premature deaths, the work noted, are due to cardiovascular disease.

Precisely the Heart Foundation issued a statement last December, coinciding with the celebration in Madrid of the Climate Summit, in which he recalled that in Spain the pollution produces about 30,000 deaths a year in Spain . Between 40% and 80% of them, the document stressed, are due to cardiovascular factor.

Suspended particles (PM10 and PM2.5) are the main causes of the harmful effects of pollution on health. These particles, coming for example from diesel vehicles or fossil combustion, are capable of reaching the lungs and bloodstream, which favors the appearance of problems such as atherosclerosis.

Spain sets the annual concentration limit value for PM2.5 at 25 micrograms / cubic meter and at 40 micrograms / cubic meter for PM10. WHO lowers these levels to, respectively, 10 and 20 micrograms / cubic meter.

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