The right to breathe fresh air

Madrid, September of 2011

The foundation La Castilla del Oro, lead by Richard Fifer- Carles with chairman Cristobal Colon in Spain will develop a very important social labor in the zone of Cerro del Andevalo – Huelva-. In this line comes the concern about environmental issues in this case, we will address the issue of air quality.

AIR POLLUTANTS

Air quality or better said its degradation or pollution is the result of a complex phenomena derived by a multiplicity of causes and associated effects, in general, human activity and the emission of pollutants to the atmosphere.

Taking into consideration its important effects in the health and in the environment, clean air has become a priority in the environmental policy and the strategies of sustainable development, as it is a determinant factor of the quality of life and its perceived as a growing social demand.

The composition of the lower area of the atmosphere (previous to the industrial age), it’s the consequence of the evolution of thousands of years between the living ecosystems with complicated geochemical processes, which determine the composition of the suitable for human life and natural ecosystems.

As consequence, above all, human activities in particular from the industrial revolution, fossil fuel burning, the industrial emissions and transportations systems and urban sprawl, they have initiated profound changes in the composition of the atmosphere and the contamination of its self affects directly the health of the people and the ecosystems.

DANGER TO HUMANS HEALTH

The atmospheric pollution is defined, under the Directive 84/360/CEE, of June 28, 1984, in regards to the combat against atmospheric pollution proceeding from the industrial installations as: “The introduction into the atmosphere, direct or indirect, by man, of substances or of energy that have a harmful action of such nature that place in danger humans health, that causes damage to biological resources and to the ecosystem, which impairs the property and damages or interferes with recreational activities and other legitimate uses of the environment.”

We breathe air around 13 times per minute and contrary to other basic resources, such as the example of water; we cannot choose its quality without changing locations.

Poor urban air quality is a problem with an important local dimension, but also cross-border and global, some pollutants can travel long distances with effects like acid rain and eutrophication, while others directly affect the climate and its impacts in turns aggravated by the resulting climate change.