The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, today inaugurated the twelfth edition of the series of #Biodirectos with the presentation of the “Guide for the Development of Environmental Projects in Schools”, which has been prepared by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO). At the conference, held under the slogan “Childhood and environmental quality. Clean air in schools”, Morán stressed the importance of connecting concern for health with the preservation of the environment. “That connection becomes one of the best tools to conserve our natural capital. Therefore, the best investment to preserve our health is to preserve environmental health,” he said.
In this sense, the Secretary of State has highlighted the value of citizen science. To introduce scientific knowledge through schools is to make it easy to understand what is difficult to explain. “If schoolchildren are able to translate into their behavior what it means to implement science in personal decision-making, an adult will also be able to do so. Schoolchildren can be their best transmitters to all citizens”, he stressed.
AIR POLLUTION
According to the latest data provided by the World Health Organization, nine out of ten people breathe air that contains high levels of pollutants. Air pollution remains the leading environmental cause of premature death in the European Union and is estimated to cause more than 400,000 premature deaths per year. Along with air quality, noise is another environmental factor with serious effects on public health.
According to the latest data provided by the World Health Organization, nine out of ten people breathe air that contains high levels of pollutants. Air pollution remains the leading environmental cause of premature death in the European Union and is estimated to cause more than 400,000 premature deaths per year. Along with air quality, noise is another environmental factor with serious effects on public health.
Although air quality has improved in recent decades in Europe as a whole, there are still problems in air quality, especially in urban environments, where the majority of the population lives. Hence the importance of acting and implementing initiatives that contribute to a better understanding of air and noise pollution, and to provide possible solutions to reduce it.
Today’s #Biodirectos was attended by Ismael Aznar, Director General of Quality and Environmental Assessment of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge; Juan Antonio Ortega, researcher in Paediatric Environmental Health and coordinator of the Environmental Health Committee of the Spanish Association of Paediatrics; Yetta Aguado, architect and co-founder of Mothers for Climate; Julio Díaz, senior scientist at the National School of Health of the Carlos III Health Institute, and Paco Segura, spokesman and former coordinator of Ecologistas en Acción.
A GUIDE THAT IS COMMITTED TO CITIZEN SCIENCE
The purpose of the Guide is to offer schools common guidelines to develop citizen science projects that allow them to address the problem of air quality and noise pollution. The aim is for these projects to help raise awareness and awareness of these problems. To this end, the publication includes in a simplified way the objectives, actors involved and methodology with which these projects should be approached.
All the environmental projects in schools proposed in this Guide are part of citizen science initiatives, which consist of the non-professional participation of volunteer personnel in environmental projects, providing help in the collection of data, analysis and interpretation of these, definition of problems and dissemination of results, participating and contributing in an informed way to the public debate.
PARTICIPATION OF SCHOOLS
The target audience of the Guide are schools with primary school students (8-12 years old) that choose to implement projects to measure air quality (specifically, nitrogen dioxide levels) and noise pollution, as well as the institutions and entities involved in them.
The Guide will address air quality projects that will contribute to improving knowledge of air quality in schools and their surroundings, as well as to increase awareness and training on the problem of air quality and its impact on health. In addition, the publication will serve to promote sustainable mobility.
With regard to noise pollution, the activities contemplated in the Guide aim to explain basic notions about the concept of noise, its measurement and physical characteristics, as well as to convey the negative effects on health and the most appropriate mechanisms to address the problem.
