Environmental association ZERO has labelled this summer the “most polluted in Portugal for the last six years”. Largely due to the number and size of forest fires, the worst area for pollution was Vouzela during the first week of August. Pollutants came in the form of inhalable particles and ozone levels. Hot air blowing in from Africa did not help, said ZERO, which added that there a number of days when information from APA, the Portuguese Agency for the Environment, was not forthcoming which made it impossible to alert the public or news sources.
