During the 1980s, Barcelona found itself at the centre of a mysterious asthma epidemic. No less than 26 separate outbreaks of the lung condition, which causes sudden breathing difficulties, occurred over a six-year period, affecting several thousand people and resulting in more than 10 deaths.
It would take a global team of researchers to finally identify the culprit – dust being released into the air from soya beans being unloaded from ships in the city’s port.
