Air Quality
Good air quality is essential to maintain the good health of the population.
Air quality is essential for people’s health and for normal development. A deviation from the chemical compounds we have evolved with over millennia can make us sick. It is therefore important to monitor air quality and establish policies to decarbonize the atmosphere and rid it of gases with harmful effects on living beings.
Contaminating compounds
Cities have been measuring the different components of greenhouse gases derived from vehicle combustion, boilers, and business activity (CO2, CO, CH4) for years, as well as carcinogenic gases such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (PAH), mineral oils, trichloroethylene (TCE), 4,4′-methylene dianiline, epichlorohydrin (C), ethylene dibromide and ethylene dichloride. These and other emissions have been studied closely.
Consequences
Recent scientific studies have shown how some of these emissions cause damage to the health of babies, reduce life expectancy, and cause premature deaths. According to the World Health Organization, with respect to the lungs, these emissions can cause obstructive diseases, pneumonia, respiratory disorders and even lung cancer.
But they can also affect the brain, leading to increased incidence of stroke, neural damage, poor mental health in children, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. They can affect the heart with myocardial infarction, arrhythmia or congestive heart failure, and even human reproduction. The consequences are wide-ranging.
Solutions
The seriousness of these facts has encouraged the development of measures to undertake a complete change in the way cities are planned, orienting them towards clean mobility, as well as the modification of the economy towards a low or zero carbon economy through the 2030 Agendas and climate strategies, with emission reduction targets at all levels.
Our determination to reduce emissions has led us to measure 100% of our emissions since 2009, while establishing a phased reduction roadmap in line with the Paris Agreement and aligning the company’s investment attractiveness through indices that put a price on the amount of carbon emissions.
