In recent weeks we have conducted interviews with different experts to better understand the effects that pollution and poor air quality have on the population. While Europe was voting on the new air quality directive, which was approved a few days ago by the European Parliament, we were able to talk to personalities from different countries to analyze a problem, that of pollution, which affects hundreds of thousands of people every year: in Europe 97% of people living in cities breathe polluted air, which causes 300,000 premature deaths each year.
Researcher Xavier Querol, from the CSIC, warns clearly: this is not just a problem of environmentalism, but of public health.
The problem is enormous. Dr. Sylvia Medina, from the French national health service, told us how pollution causes not only respiratory diseases, but also pathologies that go far beyond that.
We are all exposed to pollution, but some populations are extremely vulnerable. Pregnant women, children under 5 years of age, the elderly and athletes in cities.
In 2007, in Germany, Dierk Granzow was diagnosed with pulmonary emphysema, an obstructive respiratory disease. He was given 10 years to live. During the interview, he told us how difficult it is to climb a flight of stairs or walk 300 meters, and the need for cities to reduce pollution to improve air quality.
And what steps can we take? For this we talk to Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Researcher, Professor and Director of the Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative, and Head of IsGlobal’s Climate, Air Pollution, Nature and Urban Health Program, who tells us what urban models can and should work to reduce pollution levels, from superblocks like in Barcelona to “15-minute cities”.
“Technological measures are necessary, but they do not solve the problem. The most successful ones have been the non-technological ones” says Xavier Querol, who talks about the importance of measures on traffic in cities.
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