Canary Volcano, the testimony of the Italian sailor: “Here bad air”

“It is difficult to breathe, this air causes cough and various discomfort. There is little to do, we also tried to move to another area of ​​the island, where it seemed that the air could be more breathable, but today we are retracing our steps because the situation has worsened “. This is how the sailor Giammarco Sardi, known as Mambo, arrived in Santa Cruz de La Palma, tells the Adnkronos about the difficult days in the Canary Islands, where the Cumbre Vieja volcano, in the south of the island of La Palma, has been erupting for a month now. on 9 October with his Antistene 992 for the stage of the Mini Transat, the two-stage crossing of the Atlantic on boats of 6.50 meters, divided into prototype and series hulls. The first fraction is France-Canary, the second Canary-Guadeloupe. “We have been here for 2 weeks. The first days – explains Sardi to Adnkronos – the air was a bit heavy. But the values ​​were still normal. I know this because, for a strange twist of fate, I decided to collaborate with Aics Ambiente on a project of monitoring the air in the ocean and therefore I travel with a fine dust detector. The first few days we breathed quite well and the values ​​were decent but for some days, with the rotation of the wind, the fine particles have arrived in the north-east area and have brought the values ​​of Pm2.5 to around 40 μg / m3, well above the norm (the air is considered clean with values ​​around 12 μg / m3, ed.) but in the most exposed area of ​​the island, 315 μg / m3 has been reached “. Sardi says that “the local people are worried: they don’t know when this situation will end or if it will get worse. When they clean the streets, a tremendous amount of dust is raised which worsens the quality of the air. Citizens are concerned above all for the elderly “. But there is” an aspect that goes against the trend “, Sardi notes:” Incredibly, there is a significant influx of tourists, mostly German, attracted by the volcano. Not that this compensates for the penalties of the locals but it is noteworthy. “According to the latest data, the volcano, with over 80 million cubic meters of lava has already wiped out about two thousand buildings, 1,956 to be exact, and covered 763 hectares of land, but fortunately did not cause casualties: “From what I have heard from the locals, there is a village south of the volcano that is completely isolated. Roads blocked by magma. By sea it is not easy to reach as there are no roads to go up from the sea to the town. From what they tell me, but I have no confirmation, they are bringing him food with drones. In any case, I am in a serious situation because I am downwind of the volcano. They dig every day. Almost like after an earthquake, except that instead of rubble they remove volcanic ash ”, says Giammarco, also showing his Antistene completely covered by a blanket of lava dust. “We still try to stay positive. After a first crossing with very complicated weather, on boats of 6.5 meters, we still think we deserve a bit of lightheartedness. The regatta, hopefully, will restart on 29 October with destination Guadalupe! ”, Concludes Sardi.