Air Pollution in Mexico
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For close to twenty years, Mexico City has held the less than prestigious honor of being at the top, or close to the top, of the world's worst air pollution centers.
Geography partly explains the problem. Situated on a plateau, and surrounded by mountains, makes Mexico City a natural candidate for air quality problems. Thermal inversions, atmospheric situations characterized by cool ground air getting trapped or capped by a warmer layer of air, are a natural part of living among mountains.
Recognizing this fact, the Mexican Government began instituting a series of air quality improvement policies, including requiring pollution control devices such as catalytic converters on new automobiles, and reducing sulphur content in gasoline. The policies have translated into improved, but still often unhealthy, air quality (see Air Quality in Mexico: Toward Clean Air - in a Decade
The most recent air pollution studies conclude that although air quality conditions have improved from their record lows, a focus on cleaner transportation may be a necessary but insufficient approach to air quality problems. The report states, "Fires and burning industrial waste contribute a surprising amount of pollution."
Closer to home, the US-Mexico Border 2012 Program is a bilateral forum for addressing air pollution issues along the United States-Mexican border. They define the border air pollution problems as follows:
"Pollutants from a number of sources including motor vehicles, power plants and industrial facilities, agricultural operations, mining, dust from unpaved roads, and open burning of trash have affected urban and regional air quality along the U.S.-Mexico border. The most common and damaging pollutants from these sources include sulfur dioxide, suspended particulate matter (PM-10 and PM-2.5), nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone, and carbon monoxide."
The issue of poor air quality, dust or high levels of PM-10, created by driving on unpaved roads, can be effectively addressed by paving high traffic border areas. The Nogales border area of Arizona and Mexico, for example, is a high traffic transportation corridor with a history of poor air quality as measured by high PM-10 levels. The Border 2012 program reports,
"To address this issue, the city of Nogales, Sonora has secured an infrastructure loan for $8.83 million from the North American Development Bank (NADB) to fund the city's Comprehensive Paving and Air Quality Program. The program aims to pave more than 3.2 million square feet of public streets with reinforced waterproof concrete and asphalt in 30 of its subdivisions. Priority will be given to roadways used for public transport."
As transportation and other air quality triggers continue to be addressed, so too will overall air quality in Mexico.
© 2009. Patricia A. Michaels