He Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), center driven by ”la Caixa”has recently led a international study that elaborates a ranking of the 857 most polluting European cities, as well as analyzes the sources (traffic, housing and agricultural sector) that contribute to the mortality associated with air pollutants.
The research, published in the journal The Lancet Public Health, analyzes how much European cities pollute based on two air pollutants: PM particles2.5 and the nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Regarding that second indicator, the ISGlobal ranking places in its ‘top’ large European cities as populated as Madrid (3.3 million population), Antwerp (530,000 pop.), Turin (900,000 inhabitants) or the Paris metropolitan area (13 M inhab.).
At the moment of arrival to the seventh position of the table in relation to the aforementioned indicator, however, the surprise arises. In it appears Mollet del Valles, a small town of 51,294 inhabitants located in the Catalan region of Valles Oriental, with a value of NOT2 pollutant even higher than that of large cities such as Madrid, Paris or the city itself Barcelona metropolitan arealocated in sixth position -one immediately before Mollet- in the ISGlobal ranking.
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And here comes the question: why a small town like Mollet del Valles appears in the ‘top’ of the most polluting European cities according to research by the ISGlobal? Researchers from the center and sources from the Molletense consistory provide keys to contextualize the surprising local phenomenon.
The methodological criteria of the study
He methodological aspect used by the Institute for Global Health is one of the key parameters to understand the Mollet’s position in the ranking. Sasha Khomenko, researcher at the Institute, argues thathe study has analyzed as a whole different municipalities under the umbrella of the category ‘Barcelona metropolitan area‘, in which, however, it has not included Mollet, a city that is segregated in a place after that of the metropolitan area of Barcelona (sixth position).
“The cities of the Barcelona metropolitan area are very contaminants and have characteristics similar to those of Mollet; if the municipalities of the region had been analyzed separately, they would probably rank above the small city of Valles Oriental“.
The cities that ISGlobal has included in the category ‘Barcelona metropolitan area’, therefore, are the following: Badalona, Barcelona, Castelldefels, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Cornellà de Llobregat, Esplugues de Llobregat, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, El Prat de Llobregat, Rubí, Sabadell, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Santa Coloma from Gramenet, Terrassa, Viladecans.
Consulted by this newspaper, sources of the Mollet Town Hall critics are shown with the methodological criteria selected by ISGlobal: “It is not comparable”, they regret. Apart from Mollet, it should be noted that seven catalan cities more have been studied with their own local category: Granollers (number 151); Manresa (190); killed (275); Reus (292); tarragona (314); Equalizer (329); and Girona (496). Of all of them, yes, Mollet is the only one that ranks among the ten european cities more pollutants by NO2.
Data from a station in full B-30
Another of the keys that explain the phenomenon of contamination in Mollet is its concentration in its limited local demarcation (10 km2), a circumstance that does not occur in large areas such as those of Como Madrid, Turin, Antwerp, Milan or Paris, all of them surfaces with hundreds of square kilometers.
In these big cities, the high pollution of the center is compensated by the low levels of its peripherytherefore the final mean of contamination low. Something that does not happen in cities like Mollet: “In a small municipality, the average contamination rises exorbitant”, explains Khomenko.
Furthermore, sources of Mollet Town Hall denounce that “the station from which the data was extracted is located in the B-30 highway and not in the urban area”, a fact that, in the opinion of the Vallès town hall, has been decisive in calculating the high levels of pollution.
A city surrounded by big highways
A third differential fact to contextualize the study is that Mollet it is a city surrounded by high capacity road infrastructures and with a large volume of traffic: AP-7, C-33, C-17 and C-59.
As they point out from the ISGlobaltransport -especially road- is the main reason for contamination in relation to NO2 emissions. Khomenko specifies that rail transport and constriction transport also affect in the release of the chemical.
From the Molletense consistory they claim to be aware of what it means to live in a city surrounded by large highways. That is why, already in April 2022, they requested both the Generalitat as the State acoustic screens on the roads C-17 and AP-7 to reduce acoustic impact.
“It is the responsibility of all the administrations involved to carry out joint and coordinated actions to reduce the inconvenience and improve the quality of life of the citizenship of Mollet & rdquor ;, stated at that time the then mayor Josep Monras (PSC).
A local “urban canyon” design
Finally, a fourth element that responds to Mollet’s high position in the aforementioned European ranking of the most polluting cities is its urban design. According to the ISGlobal researcher, one of the NO2 characteristics is your “potential to focus on small surfaces”.
“It is very difficult for it to expand,” says Khomenko, who confirms that the streets of Mollet “are very narrow and are surrounded by very tall buildingsa design that creates a ‘urban canyon‘ and as a consequence the concentration pollution in the urban fabric”.
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