Mexicans choke in ‘the world’s most polluted city’

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 18

Mexicans choke in ‘the world’s most polluted city’

From

PETER CHAPMAN

in Mexico City

After more than a month of mounting public alarm over the dense cloud of smog which has sunk to street level in Mexico City for at least a few hours every morning since December, the Mexican Government has made its first official pronouncements on a situation which, say experts, confirms the Mexican capital as the most polluted of all the world’s major urban centres.

Official assurances that current conditions are -“not grave” have failed to convince Mexico’s increasingly vociferous ecology groups. Nor will they relieve pressure on Government members who are being publcly blamed for the rapid, unplanned growth of Mexico City which contributed to the high level of devastation during last September’s earthquakes. A recent spate of sub-zero temperatures in an unusually cold Mexican winter have also driven home the extent of Mexico City’s environmental crisis. The 1.6-kilometre thick smog cloud, which usually hovers 45 metres over the city, has been forced down by a series of temperatue inversions, whereby warm, polluted air near the ground is prevented from escaping by a layer of cold air above — a problem common in the Los Angeles area of the United States. The result has been that many of the capital’s 18 million people go about their business in a choking and eye-burning cloud of sulphur, carbon monoxide, lead, and other pollutants for several hours each day. Immediate parallels have been drawn with other cities that have suffered the devastating effects of smog in recent history. The most shocking — much commented on here in the media — is that of the London smog of 1952, which was estimated to

have contributed to the deaths of as many as 4000 people. There is no comparison with the London example, responded a high-ranking Mexican environmental official, since the London smog lasted continuously for a number of days. The Mexico City sun could usually be counted on to heat up the cold layer of air above and let the pollutants below escape after a matter of hours.

But ,the official finally conceded that, since the smog first sank to the streets, there had been one day at least when the inversion had lasted through 24 hours.

What Government response there has been, therefore, is not being widely viewed as adequate. The official advice to those gathered at a recent Government press conference — that Mexico City’s people should breathe through their noses and not their mouths — was seen as sound, but far from being in touch with the extent of the problem. With the Ecology Alliance — a fusion of groups from across the country and brought together last year — arguing that 1985 saw more than one million tonnes of pollutants belched by Mexico City’s cars and heavy industry into an already thin oxygen layer (the capital lies at an altitude of 2256 m), the level of public alarm has sometimes been astounding. One newspaper, in a front-page headline, even claimed the contaminants in the air could cause such diseases as A.I.D.S.

A more considered response from ecology experts points out that — as in London over 30

years ago, — it is the elderly and the young who are most at risk, plus those who suffer from such chest and respiratory complaints as bronchitis and asthma. Such highly discomfiting — sometimes lethal — diseases as gastroenteritis are also worsened by the pollution. Well over 20,000 people still living in tents and other basic shelters on the streets of Mexico City after September’s earthquakes are also highly exposed to the dangers. Their numbers have lately increased, rather than fallen as the Government has promised, as many of the homeless have left official shelters, complaining of bad treatment and conditions. As in the case of the earthquakes, the smog has underlined what ecology and local action groups have alleged to be examples on stark Government inefficiencies.

Unsafe buildings — badly built and insufficiently checked by Government inspectors — came crashing to the ground in September. The smog cloud — which everyone has seen looming large above them for years — has now also hit the streets.

In both cases, there has been ? little sign of the Mexican Govemment admitting to official j blame. Ecologists fear that there is now little chance of it acting effectively. “In this country,” says one t. critic, “things happen, but no-one ■] is to blame, no-one takes responsibility. It is just moral corruption.” u

Copyright — London Observer 1 Service. 1 J