Air pollution affects our health

In the last 30 years have been published 5,000 studies about air pollution. Many of them demonstrate the damage that pollution causes in humans but the fault is not only of the government because there are many measures of personal conscience.

This is one of the main conclusions the 60 participants reached in the scientific coffee Environment influences our health? held 15 April at the Centre of Barcelona Peter Apostle and was organized by the Centre of Genomic Regulation (CRG).

The ceremony was attended by the co-director of the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, Jordi Sunyer, Creal researcher, Michelle Mendez, and Ester Vilalonga from the Orfila Foundation for Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar).

In fact, Dr Sunyer noted that it is necessary to "educate" the population and make them act in what they can, make them follow a balanced diet, and make them not to use the car excessively, these are some measures,among others, to reduce air pollution. However, co-director noted that the 80% of pollution is caused by traffic and, therefore, we should control the port and airport traffic as well as vehicles.

As for the political powers, it is needed "very courageous politicians" to take measures that sometimes are not very "popular," said Dr Sunyer.

In any case, Dr. Mendez noted that the diet of the Barcelona population is usually "very correct".The government supports the markets, which makes that the fruit and vegetables can be purchased at an affordable price, something that does not occur in many states of the USA.

THE PROCEDURE

The Statistical Researcher of the Center for Environmental Epidemiology, Anna Schembari, began the scientific coffee with an explanation of the current situation of air pollution and the dangers we face.

Later, researchers answered questions of the participants.