Air Pollution in Mexico City: Past, Present, and Future

Efforts to Reduce Air Pollution

Current Conditions

• Since most of air pollution was coming from vehicle emissions, the Mexican government decided to implement a rule where citizens could only drive their cars on certain days of the week. (For example, if your license plate ends with 5 or 6, you can't drive on Mondays)
• Instead of driving down pollution, pollution increased in the years following implementation. Many people bought a second car to drive on days that they couldn't drive on with their first car, and these cars were often low-cost, low efficiency vehicles that spewed more pollution into the air than their other cars.
• Factory emission reductions
• Ban on leaded gasoline
• Ecobici -- Bike share program subsidized by Mexican government
• reduces air pollutants by replacing cars as transportation

• Air quality in Mexico City has gotten much better since the 1990s, however there is still much room for improvement.
• Recently, Mexico City had its worst smog in 11 years. Some believe this is due to a relaxing of regulations following air quality improvement
• "The root of the problem is the growth of the vehicle fleet" -Bernardo Beranda, director for the Latin America Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
• Beranda recommends limitation of vehicle usage, but also longer term solutions like more investment in public transportation and creation of areas only open to foot and bicycle traffic
• Critics say that the city administration has been "enthusiastic" about promoting highway projects and less so about promoting public transportation

Background

Conclusion

Air Pollution

• Mexico City is located in the Mexican Plateau (In Spanish: Altiplanicie Mexicana) at an elevation of 2,240 meters.
• Mexico City has a population of almost 20 million people, and in 2011 accounted for $411 billion of Mexico's GDP

• Most air pollution is caused by the incomplete burning of fossil fuels -- compounded by Mexico City's high altitude (less pressure, therefore less efficient combustion)
• Most of this combustion occurs from the running of private vehicles. Mexico City a densely populated urban area
• Temperature and Pressure inversions that occur as result of high elevation keep pollution close to surface, creating smog

Though air pollution is a big issue for Mexico City right now and has been for the past 20 years, the people who live there have to work to find a solution that both actually works and is beneficial to industries and people in the city.

Air Pollution Direct Health Effects

• Aggravated respiratory and cardiovascular illness
• Added stress to heart and lungs
• Decrease in lung capacity
• Development of respiratory diseases
• Shortening of Life Span

• Due to population boom, industrial development, and lax government regulation, Mexico City became the world's most polluted city in the 1990s. Levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides were twice or three times as much as the World Health Organization standards. Every major air pollutant was found in quantities much too high for human inhalation. (Yip, 2000)
• List of Pollutants
• Ozone
• Particulate Matter
• Sulfur Dioxide
• Nitrogen Oxides
• Lead
• Carbon Monoxide

Air Pollution in Mexico City: Past, Present, and Future

Will Southard