The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has presented a Guide for the development of environmental projects in schools, focused on air quality and noise pollution.

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has presented a Guide for the development of environmental projects in schools, focused on air quality and noise pollution. The presentation, held  at the Colegio de Educación Infantil y Primaria Méjico in Madrid, has been carried out by the general director of Quality and Environmental Assessment of MITECO, Ismael Aznar, who has been accompanied by technicians from the Carlos III Health Institute. These technicians have carried out different participatory workshops with the students.

Despite the advances in air quality in the last decade, air pollution problems are still very important in Europe and Spain. Poor air quality leads to health impacts that lead to an increase in premature deaths from respiratory or cardiovascular conditions. Along with air quality, noise is an environmental factor with serious effects on public health. On many occasions, the same sources of air pollution act as emitters of noise or vibrations, which imply risks and damage to the population. Children and the elderly are particularly sensitive to these problems.

In this context, the environmental projects in schools proposed in this publication are part of the initiatives commonly known as “citizen science”, based on the non-professional participation of volunteers in environmental projects, working on the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, definition of problems and dissemination of results.

The Guide, which aims to facilitate the development of citizen science projects in schools to address the problem of noise and atmospheric pollution, and the leaflet for students are available online.

INVOLVEMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY
This Guide aims to involve children, together with the educational community, laying the foundations for future generations to develop a sensitivity and knowledge that promotes more sustainable, healthy and respectful behaviours with the environment that surrounds us.

It is hoped that the environmental projects included in the publication will contribute to improving knowledge about the air quality situation in schools and increase awareness of the problem of air pollution and its effects on health. In this way, this initiative will promote sustainable mobility and the change towards less polluting means of transport. On the other hand, the Guide also promotes basic notions about the concept of noise and the negative effects on health.

On the occasion of the presentation of the Guide, on March 24 the event “Childhood and environmental quality. Clean air in schools”. This day, which
it will be opened by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, will be articulated around different interventions and will feature a debate between speakers from the field of science, health, the educational community, civil society and the public administration. The event will be broadcast on the different social media channels of the Biodiversity Foundation.