Free post: Air pollution in Santiago
Air pollution in Santiago is one of the many problems this city has and few people want to talk about it. Year after year air pollution gets worse and according to Raúl O’Ryan and Luis Larraguibel, who wrote “Contaminación del aire en Santiago: ¿qué es, qué se ha hecho, qué falta?” (http://www.dii.uchile.cl/~Revista/ArticulosVol4-N1/ORyan-R%20y%20Larraguibel-L.pdf) the contaminated air we breathe in the capital city is one of the worst in the world.
Air pollution is “contamination of the indoor or the outdoor environment by any chemical, physical or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. Household combustion devices, motor vehicles, industrial facilities and forest fires are common sources of air pollution. Pollutants of major public health concern include particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Outdoor and indoor air pollution cause respiratory and other diseases, which can be fatal”, says the WHO.
Pollution does not affect Santiago only, unfortunately there are other contaminated cities like Chillán and Temuco. The present and past governments are not doing enough so we can say they are honestly worried about air pollution and trying to reduce the levels. Politicians have a lot to deal with but I don’t understand why air pollution does not motivate them to discuss and create more and new regulations. In Latin America, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the most polluted city is Lima but that doesn’t mean we don’t need more control on the growing number of cars in Santiago, for example. While further south, in Santiago and because of the levels of contamination, children and the elderly suffer the various typical winter illnesses like the respiratory syncitial virus. Winter after winter this situation has been out there and babies seem to have adapted to some kind of different and more contaminated air bronchitis after bronchitis.
