After a long judicial process, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled this Thursday that Spain has breached "systematically and continuously" between 2010 and 2018 the annual limits of pollution associated with nitrogen dioxide (NO2 )

in Madrid

and

in the areas of the Barcelona Area, Vallès-Baix Llobregat.

A sentence that resolves the lawsuit C-125/20 filed by the European Commission against Spain, because although Madrid and Catalonia are responsible for compliance with these air pollution limits, the EU considers the member countries ultimately responsible for these judicial processes .

Although this judicial resolution

does not currently imply fines for Spain,

there will be fines if the breach persists.

The CJEU ruling is based on exceeding the legal limits of nitrogen dioxide (NO), which

originates above all from road traffic and the combustion of fossil fuels

.

These are not the only emissions that contaminate the air we breathe daily, as it is also loaded with other polluting particles that are harmful to health, mainly the so-called particles of less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM 2.5), whose main origin is are emissions from diesel vehicles, and

tropospheric ozone.

The latter is considered a secondary pollutant, that is, it is not emitted directly into the atmosphere by a source, but is formed from reactions activated by sunlight between primary pollutants (such as nitrogen oxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles or boilers).

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The EU Justice condemns Spain for the "systematic" breaches of Madrid and Barcelona on air pollution

  • Writing: PABLO R. SUANZES(Correspondent)Brussels

The EU Justice condemns Spain for the "systematic" breaches of Madrid and Barcelona on air pollution

COP26.

The ill health of the planet harms the heart

  • Writing: TERESA GUERREROMadrid

The ill health of the planet harms the heart

As has now been established by the European Justice, Madrid and the aforementioned areas of Barcelona

exceeded the annual exposure limit to NO2, established in the current community directive

(Directive 2008/50/CE of the European Parliament and of the European Council, of May 21, 2008)

at 40 micrograms per cubic meter

.

That limit of 40 micrograms/cubic meter was initially set in 1999 and confirmed in 2008. However, as the harmful health effects of nitrogen dioxide are better known, European authorities intend to further restrict the maximum allowed , which

in 2030 would go from 40 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) to 20 micrograms

, according to the proposal for a revision of the Directive made by the European Commission.

The World Health Organization (WHO) goes further and recommends that

the permitted NO2 limits should not exceed the threshold of 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

These growing restrictions are based on the proliferation of scientific studies that show that the continued inhalation of these particles cause serious heart and respiratory problems.

Thus, the European Environment Agency estimates that in 2019 there were 400,000 premature deaths in Europe due to air pollution, of which it attributes 373,000 to exposure to particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM 2.5), 48,000 to exposure to NO2 and 19,000 to tropospheric ozone.

Of these 400,000 premature deaths, 30,000 would have occurred in Spain (of which 23,300 are attributed to PM 2.5 particles, 6,250 to NO2 and 1,820 to ozone).

In a ranking of more than 800 European cities prepared by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center promoted by the La Caixa Foundation, with data from 2015,

Madrid is the European city with the most deaths associated with NO2 and Barcelona occupies the sixth position.

According to this study

, in 2015 2,380 deaths could have been avoided in the Metropolitan area due to NO2 and 1,883 in Barcelona if the lowest recommended levels of contamination had been reached.

The metropolitan area of ​​Madrid includes the towns of Alcobendas, Alcorcón, Coslada, Fuenlabrada, Getafe, Leganés, Madrid, Majadahonda, Móstoles, Parla, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Rozas de Madrid, Las, San Sebastián de los Reyes, while that the Barcelona area includes Badalona, ​​Barcelona, ​​Castelldefels, Cerdanyola del Vallés, Cornellà de Llobregat, Esplugues de Llobregat, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Prat de Llobregat, El, Rubí, Sabadell, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Sant Cugat del Vallés, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Terrassa, Viladecans.

For Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, director of ISGlobal's Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative, this sentence "highlights the

need to take drastic measures"

and it is a particularly alarming punishment because the sentence comes for breaching certain limits of air pollution [40 micrograms per cubic meter] that are actually out of date [WHO recommends a maximum of 10 micrograms/cubic meter]."

"This is not a fashion, nor is it a purely cosmetic issue

: it is about preventing premature deaths and diseases," he said in a statement.

In addition to the premature deaths that are associated each year with pollution in the EU, air pollution is responsible "for

millions of new cases of asthma and bronchitis in the child population

and for cardiovascular diseases, strokes, diabetes, COPD, pneumonia or cancer in adults.

"There is no magic wand to reduce pollution"

Mark Nieuwenhuijsen admits that "there is no magic bullet and that no single measure can reduce air pollution."

For this reason, in its roadmap it contemplates "packages of political measures, accompanied by

citizen awareness

. We must reduce private motorized traffic in cities and make it cleaner. Public transport and active mobility must be expanded and reinforced in cities metropolitan areas. We have to ensure that travel by public transport is faster than journeys by private vehicle", he proposes.

The researcher lists as initiatives "replacing asphalt with green spaces,

greening cities

and eliminating polluting traffic or enforcing a speed limit of 30 km/h in the entire urban area, expanding the infrastructure of bike lanes or

eliminating traffic on a radius of at least 200 meters around the schools".

From the point of view of this specialist,

"the electric car is not a panacea

because it is expensive, its introduction is slow and it does not remedy the great mistake for which we have ceded most of our public space to motorized traffic to the detriment of of people".

However, it considers that the electric vehicle should be the alternative for public transport, including taxis". It also calls for "

banishing noisy and polluting motorcycles from cities

and replacing them with electric motorcycles, as well as electrifying the fleet of vehicles distribution and opt for a system based on collection points instead of door-to-door delivery.

Reaction of environmentalists

As Ecologistas en Acción denounced this Thursday when the sentence was known, in 2022 "the Barcelona Area will once again fail to comply with the annual limit value at the l'Eixample station, while the city of Madrid will match it at the Plaza Elíptica station, thanks to the high rainfall in this last quarter and to the low emission zone declared around said station to lower its measurements in this small area".

The environmental organization considers that

"the low emission zones of Barcelona and Madrid are proving to be insufficient

to effectively reduce air pollution, in the case of Barcelona because they affect very few cars and in the case of Madrid because they limit themselves to two very small areas of the city and be increasingly permissive".



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