The SMC team produces explanatory articles on topical issues to answer society’s questions, with the necessary context and depth.
If you're traveling to –or from– distant lands, this brief guide can help you minimize the effects of the time difference, the feared jet lag, so you can enjoy your vacation more (or go back to the routine less harshly).
The impact of animal abandonment goes beyond the pets who suffer it, it is a public health, safety and funding issue as well. Although there have been some improvements in recent years, the experts consulted agree that the system continues to fail. In this guide, we analyze what has changed, who does this issue affect, and what must be improved.
Summer is a season of beaches, pools, excursions, trips, and mountain hikes. But it is also the best time of the year for bedbugs, wasps, jellyfish, and mosquitoes. With this guide, we will know what to do (and not to do) if we have an undesirable encounter with one of these animals: the first step, stay calm.
With summer, the presence of these gelatinous creatures on the Spanish coasts bothers swimmers, who can suffer injuries if they come in contact with them. Are there more jellyfish than before? Which ones are the most dangerous? What should I do if one stings me? How can I avoid it? In this guide, we answer the main questions on jellyfish so you know how to act.
The risks of ultraviolet radiation are well-known: it can cause everything from burns and spots to immune system alterations, cataracts, infections, and skin cancer. We need to protect ourselves from the sun, but do we really know how to do it? What is myth and what is reality? We answer the main questions when it comes to using sunscreens.
International health organisations are warning about the spread in Europe of mosquito species that transmit diseases such as dengue fever. In Spain, where they are already widespread across much of the country, the Centro de Coordinación de Alertas y Emergencias Sanitarias (CCAES) warns of the risk of West Nile virus, and says that the summer is expected to be complicated. In this guide, we bring together information to understand this public health issue.
Ticks are parasitic mites that cause serious illnesses. Among them, the two that cause the most concern in Spain are Lyme disease and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever. Cases are expected to increase and, since last year, they have been monitored by the Ministry of Health.
Since 2024, the Ministry of Health will begin using a new, more rigorous alert system based on 182 meteosalud zones instead of 52 provinces. The aim is to make the plan more effective, inform the population when necessary, and ultimately save lives.
E-cigarettes, vapes, pods, mods... The popularity of these devices continues to grow, especially among young people. According to a Spanish survey, more than half of the adolescents aged 14 to 18 have used them at some point. Vaping control varies from country to country: in Spain, vaping products have been regulated since 2017 and the new anti-smoking plan aims to equate their legislation to that of tobacco, while the United States imposes fewer restrictions. In this brief guide, we explain what is known and not known on controversial issues such as the safety of electronic cigarettes, their risks or whether they are useful to quit tobacco.
Until now, it was thought that the risk of heat-related death in Spain had decreased among older people. But what if we take into account the increase in longevity? Has it decreased as much as the studies suggested? In this case it is useful to use the concept of prospective age, i.e. the years we hypothetically have left to live, rather than the years we have lived.