Birds fall out of skies in Mexico City’s smog

Press, 10 March 1988, Page 17

Birds fall out of skies in Mexico City’s smog

NZPA-Reuter Mexico City A year ago, pollution in Mexico City was so ! bad that hundreds of birds began falling out of' the smoggy skies. Since then various environmental measures have gone' into force, but ecology groups say pollution is as bad as ever.

“So far this year, lead and ozone concentration in the air have on some days been twice those of the same time last year,” Luis Manuel Guerra, the director of Mexico’s Autonomous Institute for Ecoological Research (1.N.A.1.N.E.), told Reuters.

Ecology groups say 100, mostly voluntary, anti-pol-lution measures enacted a year ago have had | little effect. The Government disagrees with that assessment.

A new environmental protection law, giving Ministries and municipalities enforcement powers, went into effect on March 1, but ecology groups fear that the Government) lacks the manpower to carry out that responsibility.

: “Pollution will continue to be a serious problem for at least 10 more years

here and if firm steps are not taken we could have one of the worst ecological catastrophes in history,” Mr Guerra said.

With 18 million inhabitants, two million vehicles and 30,000 industries, the Mexican capital has long been notorious for its foul air.

At an altitude of 2200 metres and with severe pollution, residents take in up to 30 per cent less oxygen than normal, age quickly and are vulnerable to diabetes, heart, bronchial and liver disease. Babies can be born with lead poisoning. Ecologists, who are pessimistic about a rapid solution, estimate that 3500-4500 people die each year either directly from pollution or from illnesses aggravated by exposure to toxic waste. Pollution hits hardest at the very young and the very old. An 1.N.A.1.N.E. study of 1600 babies born in Mexico found that 70 per cent had 20 micrograms of lead per decilitre in their blood. That is twice the World Health Organisations safety limit, and leads to stunted

growth and nervous disorders. "Children in Mexico City are at risk even before they take their first breath,” Mr Guerra said. Mexico’s Ministry of Urban Development and Environment argues that its anti-pollution measures are having an effect and Health Ministry studies report no direct relation between pollution and respiratory problems. "Mexico City is now within international norms for some pollutants and industry is making sizeable investments to reduce contaminants,” the Minister of Ecology, Mr Manuel Camacho Solis told Congress in November.

January and February are particularly noxious months because of a phenomenon known as thermal inversion. Cold air at mountain-level traps an evil cloud of toxic gases in the valley of the sprawling ! metropolis. The lead content in Mexico City air means that just breathing is like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. This

month, Mr Guerra said, lead in the air hit 0.8 milligrams per cubic metre, 500 per cent above the 0.15 milligrams United States limit Ozone and sulphur dioxide levels are also markedly higher than last year, he said. Visitors flying in can smell pollution and suffer burning sensations in the eyes well before touchdown and the qty itself is often invisible until then. When authorities in January last year unveiled clean air measures, they identified the 300 dirtiest industries around the capital. But the plan to cut {burning of fuel oil at peak pollution periods was not compulsory. | Though industry is a serious pollutant, the main problem lis vehicle emissions. 1 Low-grade, leaded gasoline causes 75 per cent of Mexico City’s air contaminat on.

State oil company, Pemex, has improved gasoline somewhat and Camacho Solis said other measures have cut 10 tonnes of lead and sulphur dioxide in Mexico City air. !

But according to the Government’s own estimates, 13,500 tonnes of pollutants, excluding lead, are spewed into the city’s atmosphere on an average day. Carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and dust particles are the main components. The Government hopes improvements in gasoline engines can cut 10 per cent of the 10,000 tonnes per day of carbon monoxide in the air, particularly when catalytic converters, to allow unleaded gaso- _ line, are Introduced in 1989 car models. Even though Pemex has reduced the lead content to 0.8 grams per gallon from 3.5, this is still 50 per cent above the United States limit, Mr Guerra says. Meanwhile, Mexico is turning to piecemeal steps to moderate car pollution. Drivers, for instance, are being educated to tune „ engines and turn them off in traffic jams. Last August' ecology groups introduced a voluntary “one’ day a week without your car” campaign but few drivers complied.