The poor air quality in the Valley of Mexico has forced this Friday at 10 in the morning the Environmental Commission of the Megalopolis (CAMe) to extend the environmental contingency decreed last Wednesday. When the next bulletin is released, presumably at 3:00 p.m., 48 hours of alert for air pollution in the metropolitan area will have passed. The commission attributes the high levels of ozone at the surface to the high pressure system that has caused high temperatures and the absence of wind. Vehicle restrictions known as Today does not circulate and the recommendations for the population to avoid outdoor activities in the capital and 18 peripheral municipalities of the Valley of Mexico. It is the tenth contingency of the year, two shy of the 1993 record.
The air regulatory entity has avoided giving figures to know if the limit of ozone in the air that activates the alert, established at 155 parts per billion, has been exceeded. “Phase I of the atmospheric environmental contingency due to ozone continues in the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico and its measures, in order to protect the health of the population and prevent exposure to high levels of ozone,” explained the CAMe in its release.
The reason why air pollution continues is the same one that has caused 10 environmental contingencies so far this year and the one that a week ago caused the longest Phase I alert in the last five years. The climatic situation. “The high pressure system that has caused atmospheric stability with strong intensity in recent days in the center of the country, still remains without significant changes, generating weak wind on the surface and avoiding the formation of clouds during the morning and mid-day, which which results in intense solar radiation and high temperatures,” explained CAMe.
The main problem that experts consider, however, is the great pollutant of the Valley of Mexico: the vehicles that circulate on the streets. Restrictions on car traffic seem to be insufficient to stop the poor air quality, which is spurred by the atmospheric stability that occurs in Mexico between February and June. One more month with these weather conditions that could cause the metropolitan area to exceed the twelve contingencies that were decreed in 1993.
‘Today does not circulate’
The extension of the environmental contingency means that vehicle restrictions will remain in place this Friday. Only cars with a 0 and 00 hologram will be able to take to the streets if they have stickers other than blue and a license plate finish other than 9 and 0. Also hybrid and electric cars, those that carry an ecological license plate and those that have to attend a urgent medical emergency. The industry in the Valley of Mexico and surrounding states, such as the Tula refinery and thermoelectric plant, in Hidalgo, will see their activity limited to avoid releasing pollutants into the air.
The poor air quality also forces the CAMe to issue recommendations to avoid exposure of the population. The entity asks not to do outdoor activities between 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., fill with gasoline before 10 in the morning and after six in the afternoon, not smoke and try not to use aerosols, paints or solvents. It invites companies to facilitate teleworking to reduce travel.
The poor air quality in the Valley of Mexico is worrying. This 2024, the capital and the 18 suburban municipalities of the State of Mexico have only had good air quality one out of every seven days of the week. A silent monster, pollution, which prematurely kills between 8,000 and 14,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
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