Ekologistak Martxan warns that half of the Navarre population breathed "contaminated air" in 2019
- In the 2019 air quality report, the group notes that there has been a level of pollution that exceeds the recommendations of the World Health Organization throughout Navarre.
Ekologistak Martxan points out that "last year half of the population of Navarre breathed contaminated air" and that all of Navarre "suffered pollution that harms forests and crops".
This is taken up by the organization in its 2019 annual report on the quality of contaminated air, in which it concludes that "half of the population and the entire territory of Navarra were exposed to a level of pollution that exceeds the recommendations of the World Health Organization".
"During a temperate year and until dry autumn, during the months of February, June and July there have been several weather events that have caused the impact of particles and ozone," said Ecologists in Action in a statement.
According to the report, during 2019, "air pollution has remained stable, reducing nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in general, but increasing particulate dioxide (PM10 and PM2.5) and significantly increasing tropospheric ozone concentrations".
"Pollution from the city of Pamplona, highways and highways, combined cycle thermal power plants of Castejón and certain industrial facilities spread throughout the territory, affecting remote areas and rural areas in the form of tropospheric ozone", says Ekologistak Martxan.
The report takes as a reference "the pollution limit values recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the long-term objective of protection of vegetation established by the European Union". According to these levels, "polluted air affected half of the population in 2019 and almost all of Navarre".
If normative standards are adopted, "looser than the WHO recommendations, there would be no population or area affected by contamination levels that exceed those permitted by law". However, "the legal objective of protecting vegetation was exceeded in the stations of Funes and Tudela, in the Ribera area, with regard to polluting ozone".
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Note: Those referring to the CAPV are listed on page 118 of the report. "The main sources of pollution are the Bajo Nervión, some points of indrustria and power plants, and the road networks of the capitals," he explained. Following the recommendations of the International Health Organization, 80% of the population of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, 1.8 million people, breathed unhealthy air.
