After the volcanic eruption on La Palma, reports on the movement of clouds enriched with toxic substances on Tuesday led to numerous calls from concerned people to the German Weather Service.

"The phone wires have been running hot since six in the morning," said a spokesman.

In fact, quite high concentrations of sulfur dioxide, for example, were measured in the atmosphere.

At measuring stations close to the ground, however, there is “next to nothing”.

In the atmosphere there will be a "chemical cleaning", in the case of precipitation the rain could be "a little more acidic" than usual, it said.

In view of the temporary phenomenon, this does not mean any increased risk to the environment.

"20 or 30 years ago we still had such pH values ​​on a regular basis."

The volcano on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma has been spitting ash, smoke and lava for exactly a month - and there is no end in sight.

Since the gases escaping from the volcano are currently not exhausted sufficiently due to the weather, the authorities called on around 7,000 residents of El Paso not to leave their homes, as the newspaper La Vanguardia reported on Tuesday.

At the same time, a second, more northerly lava flow is about to reach the sea, as the state TV broadcaster RTVE reported. He is only 30 meters away from the cliff. Almost three weeks ago the main stream reached the Atlantic a little further south on its way through the Aridane valley and has since formed a new headland in the sea that is already 36 hectares in size. As in the past, the authorities warned again that if the lava, which is around 1000 degrees Celsius, came into contact with the salty sea water, toxic fumes could form.

Since the volcano, which still has no official name, became active again in September for the first time in 50 years, almost 2,000 buildings have been destroyed and around 800 hectares affected.

That corresponds to around 1120 soccer fields.

Around 7,000 people have had to leave their homes as a precaution since September 19 and stay with relatives in other parts of the island or in hotels.

According to official information, the damage amounts to at least 400 million euros.

The banana plantations in the particularly fertile valley of Aridane have suffered particularly badly.

Flight operations were resumed on Monday after a two-day interruption.

However, there were many delays on Tuesday due to the difficult conditions.

The ashes from the volcano in particular are dangerous for aircraft engines.