The Environmental Commission of the Megalopolis (CAM) has maintained at 10:00 this Friday the twelfth environmental contingency of the year due to the “very poor quality of the air”, a figure that has not been reached since 1993. The measuring stick is not the same as three decades ago: then, the minimum values to declare the alarm were less demanding and under the current parameters “practically every day we would have had contingencies”, says the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). However, the authorities’ decision illustrates the serious level of pollution in the capital of the Republic and the urban periphery that surrounds it, which has turned recent weeks into a window to a not-so-distant future where pollution conditions day to day. day of a large city: its transportation, its public health, its quality of life.
The level of ozone in the air that poses a low risk to health, according to the classification made by experts, is 51 parts per billion (ppb) for one hour; The moderate level of risk ranges between 51 and 90 ppb for one hour and “no more than once a year,” in the words of the UNAM, a number far exceeded 11 contingencies ago. If exposure is eight hours or more, the ozone level in the air would have to be less than 70 ppb to not be unhealthy. At 3:00 p.m. this Thursday, Mexico City recorded maximum ozone quantities of 160 and 155 ppb at the Pedregal measurement stations, in the Álvaro Obregón mayor’s office, and the Atmosphere Sciences Center, in Coyoacán. More than double the “moderate” percentage of risk to public health.
The authorities have activated Phase 1 of environmental contingency “in order to reduce the population’s exposure to contaminated air and the risk of impact on their health; as well as to reduce the generation of pollutants,” reads the statement issued by the CAM. The agency attributes the high concentration of ozone in the capital’s atmosphere to the strengthening of the “high pressure system that has affected the center of the country,” which has caused a new heat wave, just days after the end of the previous one, and “the associated atmospheric stability.
The high pressure system has also caused a “clear sky, temperatures above 30° and intense solar radiation over the Valley of Mexico.” All of these factors, added to the low strength of the wind this week and its “variable direction” have created the perfect breeding ground for “the stagnation of pollutants and the formation of ozone.”
The authorities, as usual in these cases, recommend avoiding outdoor activities, whether “civic, cultural and recreational” or physical exercise between 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. They also invite not to smoke, “especially in closed spaces”, work from home, shop online “to reduce trips”, avoid the use of aerosols, refuel after 6:00 p.m. and before 10:00 a.m., “check and repair leaks in domestic gas installations” or reduce the use of fuel at home with showers of less than five minutes or “when cooking, use containers with lids.” Restrictions on vehicle circulation will be activated starting tomorrow, Friday (In this link you can check which cars have free access and which must stay at home).
The latest environmental contingency in the Valley of Mexico concluded this Monday after two days of alert that began on Saturday. Not a day had passed since the previous one, active from the 22nd to the 24th, 48 hours of contaminated air that drowned the city. Two weeks ago, the capital suffered its longest environmental contingency in the last five years. Records of unbreathable air that follow one after another while experts warn that the Government’s palliative measures are not enough to tackle the problem: the city’s major pollutant, cars, continue to emit toxins and not even mobility restrictions achieve stop it in the medium-long term.
“We must speed up the replacement of the vehicle fleet to electric vehicles and reduce the number of trips by private cars. We have to continue making an effort in public transportation, it has to continue expanding and becoming cleaner,” the air quality director of the department explained to this newspaper. World Resources Institutes in Mexico, Beatriz Cárdenas. Gas leaks in homes and businesses are the other major emitter. They dump 52% of the volatile organic compounds, the other precursor of ozone, into the air of the Valley of Mexico.
Poor air quality is more susceptible to young children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with chronic illnesses. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that air pollution kills between 8,000 and 14,000 people prematurely each year.
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