The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) today presented the Air Quality Index, an interactive map that allows you to consult, in real time, the air quality marked by the 506 measuring stations of the National Surveillance Network.
The conference “Clean air: for a healthy environment for all”, inaugurated by the Vice-President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. Teresa Ribera, addressed the importance of working on air quality in cities to generate healthy environments for citizens, promoting sustainable mobility, betting on clean technologies, collective transport and means of active mobility (walking or cycling).
The conference, the sixth edition of the #Biodirectos cycle, was also attended by the Director General of Quality and Environmental Assessment, Ismael Aznar, who presented and detailed the operation of the new air quality measurement tool.
The subsequent round table, moderated by the doctor of pharmacy, nutritionist and health communicator Marián García (Boticaria García), was attended by the director of the Department of Public Health and Environment of the World Health Organization, María Neira, the head of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the National School of Health of the Carlos III Health Institute, Julio Díaz Jiménez, and the researcher at the Institute of Environmental Diagnosis and Water Studies (IDAEA) of the Spanish National Research Council, Xavier Querol.
Coinciding with the celebration of the European Mobility Week 2020, Vice-President Ribera pointed out how the health crisis has made the link between biodiversity, health and air quality more evident than ever. “Without a healthy environment, there is no health, and without health, our entire models of development and well-being go bankrupt.”
For this reason, Ribera assured that the Government is committed to ensuring that people can breathe clean air and “we want to do so by designing policies and interventions that address both air quality and measures to mitigate climate change and its impacts on health”. In this sense, the vice-president explained that it is necessary to transform our production system, promoting sustainability and environmental protection. A transformation that “constitutes an opportunity for growth, employment and innovation”.
During his speech, Ribera regretted that air pollution is linked to many premature deaths a year around the world, 25,000 of them in Spain alone. “It is necessary to act urgently to promote and increase ambition,” he said. For this reason, Spain, in line with the European Green Deal, supports the European Commission’s proposal to review air quality standards to make them more ambitious and in line with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).
To meet these recommendations and the demands of citizens, who demand to live in healthier and more habitable spaces, to breathe clean air, to live with less noise and to be protagonists of urban spaces, it is essential to move towards sustainable mobility models and to have transparent and accessible information.
REAL-TIME INFORMATION FOR CITIZENS
In response to this need, MITECO has launched the Air Quality Index, which has been presented and detailed by the Director General of Quality and Environmental Assessment, Ismael Aznar. The new interactive air quality map launched by MITECO on Monday, September 7, available at the following address http://www.ica.miteco.es/, will allow citizens to check, in real time and in a simple way, the air quality marked by the 506 measuring stations of the National Surveillance Network through the analysis of the five main pollutants. The website also includes health recommendations for the general population and the sensitive population, and allows you to know the evolution of the state of air quality in recent months. This index aims to address the “right to information on air quality of citizens and that this serves as a basis for adopting measures for cleaner air, more quality of life and that all this results in better health for all”
The index establishes six levels of air quality: good, reasonably good, fair, unfavorable, very unfavorable and extremely unfavorable, each of them differentiated by a color code. To determine the level, the index analyzes the status of the five key pollutants for health: suspended particles with a diameter of less than 10 micrometers (PM10); suspended particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5); tropospheric ozone (O3); nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). These are pollutants that, to a large extent, are linked to different types of combustion, from road traffic to industrial emissions or wood and agricultural burning, among other activities.
The data offered by the Air Quality Index reflect the state of air pollution in the short term, being updated every hour. In addition, it incorporates health recommendations for the general population and for the sensitive population, which includes both adults and children with respiratory problems as well as adults with heart conditions. This is valuable information for, for example, making decisions about prolonged outdoor activities. By clicking on a specific station, the user will be able to know the detail of the levels of each pollutant, the reasons why the assigned quality level is determined and a history of the last months that indicates the percentage of days depending on the quality level. The methodology for calculating and visualising the national air quality index can be consulted on the MITECO website.
This index thus complements the current MITECO air quality viewer (https://sig.mapama.gob.es/calidad-aire/), which allows you to consult air quality information at the national level on pollutants with values legislated for health protection in Royal Decree 102/2011, including real-time data and the historical evolution of air quality assessment.
Precisely, the College of Commissioners of the EU has denounced Spain before the Court of Justice of the European Union for repeatedly exceeding the legal limits of nitrogen dioxide in the city of Madrid and the area of Barcelona, which encompasses 19 municipalities, including Barcelona. In order to avoid an economic sanction against Spain, and most importantly, to protect the health of citizens, all the competent administrations – central government, autonomous communities and municipalities – are working together to reverse this situation.
URGENT RESPONSES AND ADDITIONAL MEASURES
The Ministry is committed to designing and implementing ambitious air quality and climate change policies. In this sense, the measures included in the National Air Pollution Control Programme – consistent with those of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 – approved by the Council of Ministers in September 2019, aim to comply with the national emission reduction commitments acquired in the Emission Ceilings Directive and, at the same time, and will support the fulfilment of air quality objectives, allowing premature deaths to be reduced by 27%, compared to a context without measures. “All Administrations must agree on the measures, identifying homogeneous values and actions,” said Vice-President Ribera.
In addition, the Government is working on a short-term Framework Action Plan in the event of episodes of ambient air pollution by particles smaller than 10 microns (PM10), nitrogen oxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) that will establish a common framework of action for the different Public Administrations in the event of episodes of high pollution. setting homogeneous values and actions.
On the other hand, and aware that in part of the Spanish territory the ozone objectives are exceeded, MITECO is also making progress on a National Ozone Plan that will be integrated and coordinated with the rest of the air quality improvement and climate change adaptation programmes already underway.
Likewise, MITECO and the Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare, in collaboration with other public entities and bodies, are working on actions and plans such as the Health and Environment Plan, which aims to provide a global response to health-related challenges as a result of environmental problems.
