This year, the European Union will focus the environmental spotlight on air quality. The European Commission plans to review the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution, the last updated in 2005, with new measures to improve air quality. To this end, they will have the collaboration of the World Health Office (WHO).

In this sense, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has managed to reduce emissions of some pollutants thanks to different legislative requirements, such as sulphur dioxide.

This is a problem produced, in part, by activities such as fossil fuels or the increase in road traffic and is the cause of some lung diseases, which also cause 350,000 premature deaths a year in the European Union.

The latest Eurobarometer published by the European Commission, “Europeans’ attitudes on air quality” indicates that 79% of citizens believe that the European Union must take additional measures to address the problem of air quality. In view of these results, Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, said that “citizens want us to act and our response will be to review our air quality policy in 2013”.

In Spain, the aim was to analyse the situation of air quality, which is why the conference ‘Air Quality in Health’ was held, organised by the Biodiversity Foundation, together with the Foundation for Health Research (FUINSA) and the Directorate General for Environmental Quality and Assessment and the Natural Environment.

At the event, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Federico Ramos, pointed out that the Air Plan, which will dispose of the dirtiest vehicles, will be approved in the first quarter of the year.