Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that “more than 500 people have died due to the heat in the country.”

Earlier, the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation Program warned that the heat wave currently sweeping Europe, accompanied by a severe drought, exacerbates the risk of fires and increased ozone pollution. Mark Barrington, a scientist at Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring, explained that “the potential damage to human health from very high levels of ozone pollution could be significant in terms of respiratory and heart disease.” He added that high levels of surface ozone can cause sore throats, coughs and headaches, and increase the risk of asthma attacks.

Gaseous ozone is formed when emissions of fossil fuels and other man-made pollutants react in the presence of sunlight. Ozone is a major greenhouse gas and a component of urban smog, harmful to human health and inhibiting photosynthesis in plants.