How much does pollution cost Madrid? Only in emergency hospital admissions, more than 200 million a year

Air and noise pollution claim thousands of lives every year in Spain.

But, in addition, pollution peaks are associated with a high cost in hospital expenses due to the cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that they trigger.

A study published in the scientific journal

has translated this impact in the Community of Madrid into figures based on hospitalization data for the period between 2013 and 2018. In emergency admissions alone, the article estimates around 202 million euros the cost in that community, whose repeated mismanagement of air quality has been one of the causes for which Spain was condemned last week by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).

That conviction does not carry a fine at the moment.

But if pollution problems persist in Madrid and the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona (the other agglomeration with systematic breaches of community regulations), Brussels could once again denounce Spain and ask the judges to sanction it financially this time.

"It would mean paying twice," says Julio Díaz, a researcher at the National School of Public Health of the Carlos III Health Institute and coordinator of the study published in

.

Because, as this air quality expert explains, pollution already has a high cost in loss of human life and health costs.

Díaz and a team of researchers have now focused on this last aspect.

They have calculated the economic impact of emergency admissions during peak air and noise pollution.

The Community of Madrid has been the first in which they have undertaken this analysis, but the study is part of a project that aims to cover the entire country.

The authors have compared emergency hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases with data on air pollution and noise pollution.

And they have estimated costs for each income.

They conclude that an average of 8,246 emergency admissions are recorded annually in Madrid attributable to nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) peaks, the estimated cost of which is close to 120 million euros.

To these are added another 5,685 income attributable to noise pollution, whose cost is around 82 million.

Although other substances, such as ozone and suspended particles, have been analyzed for the study, the authors maintain that nitrogen dioxide and noise "are the main pollutants to which a large number of hospitalizations are attributed."

The article recalls that the effect that air pollution "has on the respiratory system is well known, causing asthma exacerbations, increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer."

"In the circulatory system it causes coronary syndromes, cerebrovascular diseases and heart failure, among others," the authors add.

On the other hand, the World Health Organization "classifies noise pollution as one of the main environmental risks to health", although there is less scientific literature than on air pollution.

"The most recent report from the European Environment Agency indicates that one in five Europeans is exposed to noise levels that could be seriously harmful to health,"

The authors indicate that, "despite the fact that air quality control regulations have led to an improvement in the atmospheric situation in recent years, the levels of air pollutants remain high."

And they point to the excess "hospital admissions" and "the consequent loss of quality of life of the population and the great economic cost" as consequences.

In the opinion of the authors, it is necessary "to update the legal thresholds to levels closer to those recommended by the WHO, and to implement new public health policies that continue to protect the health of the entire population."

As indicated in the analysis, "if the thresholds established by the WHO had been respected, 2,388 annual admissions due to natural causes attributable to NO₂ exposure could have been avoided."

Traffic and combustion vehicles

Both in the case of air pollution and noise, one must look to the same place when looking for the causes: traffic and combustion vehicles, the main sources of pollution and noise, says Díaz.

"Private vehicle traffic must be limited," this researcher proposes as the main recipe.

"No municipal official should allow a single person to die from contamination," adds Carmen Duce, from Ecologistas en Acción.

After the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU, the Madrid City Council was quick to point out its predecessor in office Manuela Carmena, although the ruling refers to the management in the capital of Spain from 2010 to 2018. During that period they governed the city two councilors of the PP —Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Ana Botella— in addition to Carmena.

To this is added that the file that has led to the conviction was stored in a drawer of the European Commission until the current councilor, the popular José Luis Martínez-Almeida, announced that his first measure after winning the elections would be to repeal Madrid Central , the city's low emission zone.

After that announcement, Brussels reactivated the file against Spain, which it denounced before the CJEU.

Martínez-Almeida has ensured that Madrid will comply in 2022 with the European air quality directive, which establishes maximum exposure levels that the capital has systematically exceeded since 2010. But those safety levels now set by the community standard (40 micrograms per cubic meter for annual exposure) are well above what is recommended by the WHO, which in its latest revision lowers them to 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

"It is not enough to comply with the law, you have to comply with health," warns Díaz.

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