Granada, one of the three cities with the most polluted air in Spain, has not correctly measured the quality of its atmosphere for months. The Junta de Andalucía has asked the Granada City Council, on up to three occasions, to correct the problem that prevents the measurement station located in the northern area of the capital from taking the real pollution values. The vegetation that covers the station prevents the collection of correct data, so they request its pruning. Something that does not prevent the station from returning values above what Europe and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend.
This is a problem due to the characteristics of the capital of Granada and what it implies for its own urban configuration. Granada (232,000 inhabitants) is one of the main tourist destinations in our country, which is why its daily population is higher than the census. A fact that causes institutions such as the University of Granada to carry out their own air quality measurements. Measurements that place the values of harmful particles above those recommended.
This occurs because Granada, despite being a small city, has a metropolitan belt that doubles the number of people living in just a few kilometers around it, which directly affects mobility and, therefore, air quality. . For this reason, Granada is usually ranked among the cities with the most polluted air not only in Spain, but in Europe. A fact that makes it especially important that the city have real values of the air that citizens breathe.
Low emissions zone
To reverse the situation, the Granada City Council is implementing a low emissions zone system to shield the city center from the passage of polluting vehicles and is studying alternatives to reduce the harmful gases that Granada residents breathe. However, all these decisions are conditioned by the pollution values that are collected from the stations located in the capital of Granada and in one of them, for months, the data obtained is not the real one.
Specifically, it is the atmospheric station located in the northern area of the capital, on Avenida Luis Miranda Dávalos. This station has been giving pollution values below the real levels for months. And, despite this, since 2008 the data it has provided regarding carbon dioxide (CO2) and suspended particles harmful to health (PM10) are above those allowed. In Spain, the maximum annual limit for nitrogen and suspended particles is 40 µg/m³ and has been easily exceeded for several years, discounting episodes in which Saharan dust may have had adverse effects on air quality.
This has been reported on several occasions by chemist Javier Gómez to the Department of Sustainability. The specialist has sent different letters to the regional Executive to highlight a situation that can be solved by pruning the vegetation that is located next to the measurement station and that is what “falsifies” the values.
Three requirements
According to the documentation submitted, and to which this newspaper has had access, the station does not comply with the microimplementation criteria established in Royal Decree 102/2011, relating to the improvement of air quality. It fails to comply with them because the cinnamon trees that surround it are very close and do not leave a clear space in an arc of at least 270° around the sampling entrance of said air pollution control station.
Sustainability has requested on three occasions in the last year that the Granada City Council proceed with the “drastic” pruning of the different cinnamon-type trees that are located near the station. A pruning that has not yet been carried out and which is denied by the City Council.
Municipal sources explain that the local policy they are applying does not involve the felling of these trees in any case and remember that the trees were already in this place before the measuring station was installed. In any case, they say they are studying alternatives to solve the problem that, at the moment, produces values that disguise the real pollution suffered by the citizens of Granada.
“Lower perception of risk”
Pablo Augustín, air quality specialist at Ecologistas en Acción, remembers that it is very important that the stations correctly measure the pollution that is breathed because it has a direct relationship with the health of the population. “Given lower data, there is less social alarm, fewer corrective measures are applied and, for example, there is more resistance to changes on the part of motor vehicle drivers due to a lower perception of risk.”
Precisely this low perception of the problem makes the population unaware of the dangers of breathing air as polluted as that of Granada. According to a UN report, in 2021 more than 8 million people died in the world from ailments related to this air pollution.
“We have been demanding real, constant mobile units for years that measure what adults breathe at 1.70 meters in height and children at 1 meter,” says the specialist. “We need a methodology that reflects reality.”
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