They say that good air quality is a fundamental right for all, and at the same time, they say that 99% of the population worldwide is exposed to air pollution above WHO Air Quality Guidelines. Mixed messages here. Even though I have already shared the story on a Tweet thread, I decided to write an article as well because of the permanence of the article and because it is easier to share.

December 17th, 2023

I arrived in Granada, Spain for the holidays. A blanket of smoke was covering Granada and the small towns around with a total area of over 100 km2. Although I was super tired, the intense smell of smoke inside the apartment and the fact that I knew that there was a lot of particulate pollution indoors didn’t permit me to sleep well.

December 18th, 2023

The following day I had to insulate the apartment even better with tape around the windows and doors. The door had a huge gap so an inexpensive foam was placed. I don’t care how ugly the windows looked I wanted to fix the issue and the landlord wasn’t helpful either.

I still had entrance points though, for example, the kitchen and bathroom exhaust. I couldn’t turn them on either because they would have created negative pressure and polluted air would have come inside from other places.

December 23rd, 2023

I got sick. I was coughing a lot, especially during nighttime when everyone lit the wood stoves. Outdoor PM2.5 concentrations were beyond unhealthy and they infiltrated indoors. The air purifier couldn’t keep up in low speed/low noise mode. I couldn’t sleep with the purifier at 100% speed. This is a typical day and the ratio of indoor and outdoor AQI. Much better indoors but I had a hard time managing the air quality. I cannot image people with less knowledge of how they handle such situations, especially with rental apartments where there are few modifications you can make.

December 29th, 2023

I had to visit the doctor because natural remedies didn’t work anymore. I got some good souvenirs from the pharmacy. I don’t live in Granada all year round but OMG this is not fair for the people that live permanently and don’t want to breathe toxic air.

In this article I described Granada but Granada was just an example, people are in the same situation in many places around the world. In the UK, US, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, etc… Governments need to step up and protect the citizens, even those who are reluctant to learn and modernize. If we didn’t have laws to ban smoking in public spaces and hospitals we wouldn’t have moved forward as a society where mutual respect is fundamental.

BAN WOOD-BURNING STOVES!