MESA DE LA RÍA will demand limits on pollution emissions from chemical companies at its plenary session.
Specifically, particulates (PM < 0.1) will be required to be controlled through a new air quality plan in the urban agglomeration of Huelva, as they pose the greatest health hazard and a recent CSIC report concerns increased mortality in Huelva.
For Mesa de la Ría, the alarming data revealed in a recent report by the Center for Advanced Scientific Research (CSIC) requires an immediate decision from public authorities. The relationship between the emission of ultrafine particles into the atmosphere and the resulting mortality shows that in Huelva we face a public health problem.
Multiple spikes in airborne particulate matter can exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular disease, increasing hospitalizations and premature deaths from asthma, bronchitis, heart disease and ischemic stroke. Long-term exposure to high concentrations of particulate matter can lead to poor respiratory system development in children. Additionally, particle-related elements, such as those described above, have the ability to cause cancer. Ultrafine particles (PM < 0.1) are the most dangerous because they are able to penetrate our respiratory and circulatory systems and enter our cells.
In this sense, studies conducted by China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in 2008, 2009 and 2010 confirmed that on the same days when industrial pollution in Huelva’s air reached its greatest peak, both the city’s mortality rate and urban mortality rate increased. decline. No relationship was established between transportation and these deaths.
It is worth remembering that in October 2011, Mesa de la Ría presented a motion at the municipal plenary meeting urging the Andalusian government to install meters for such particles. The motion was approved by the plenary and received a response from the regional government in January 2012, which denied this possibility on the grounds that the cost per meter of such particles would exceed the then €40,000. . Currently, the University of Huelva has the only ultrafine particle detector of its kind in the city.
Considering that there are no legal limits on particulate emissions and that the chemical industry has repeatedly raised this issue to avoid corrective measures, we would like to propose to the City Council from Mesa de la Ría: to immediately urge the Junta de Andalusia to establish limits on the emissions of the above-mentioned particulate matter, Because the Air Quality Law authorizes autonomous regions to set stricter limits than those set by the national executive branch.
To this end, the Andalusian government will be asked to prepare New air quality plan for the urban agglomeration of Huelva Subject to the parameters established there, continued ex officio review of the respective comprehensive environmental authorizations of central companies that could result in the above-mentioned emissions to the atmosphere is continued.