Santiago’s Smog Problem
IT takes one of those sunny, beautiful days to see the really ugly side of life in Santiago. The city has plenty of clear days, when you should be able to see its stunning natural setting, with snow-capped mountains on its fringe. But some days you can hardly make out the mountains – not because they are so far away, but because Santiago suffers from such a terrible smog problem. Chileans call it contaminacion and this is the best way to describe it in English, too. Because it contaminates life here.
I realised Santiago had a serious pollution problem before I even lived here. My girlfriend had been living in Santiago for six months and she came to visit me in New Zealand. A fit and very healthy person, she woke me one night with a rasping cough. It wasn’t a cold or smoking causing the nasty cough – it was the foul air in Santiago. Now she knows not to go running in the evenings and to try and stay indoors on the really bad days. Like everyone who has lived here for a year or more, she’s just got used to it.
If the air smells unpleasant in the city some days, remember that it’s more than a smelly nuisance – it’s a health risk. The smaller chemical particulates in the air, called PM10, can embed deep in the respiratory tract, causing serious health problems, such as cancer and respiratory or heart disease. As the World Bank puts it, “Particulate pollution, on its own or in combination with sulphur dioxide, leads to an enormous burden of ill health.” A 2004 study by the World Bank said Santiago had an average of 61 micrograms of fine particulates (PM10) per cubic meter of air. Cairo (161 mgs/ cu meter) was worse, followed by a string of Indian and Chinese cities. But that’s no consolation – most European cities had less than half the pollution level of Santiago and the notoriously polluted city of Los Angeles had a rating of 34 mgs/cu m.
A friend who lived in Santiago more than a decade ago told me the air is getting better and that it was even smellier in the 1990s. This shows the government has at least tried to clean the air. The bus system has been cleaned up, with newer, cleaner buses now on the streets. Certain types of fires have also been banned and some controls put on car use. And there are now regular warnings trying to advise citizens when the air is really bad. (see www.conama.cl). Santiago’s smog is undoubtedly made worse by its geography. The city is built in the Central Valley between mountains, where warmer air traps cooler air at ground level. This so-called thermal inversion means the atmosphere is usually still, so pollutants are slower to disperse. But that doesn’t mean the level of pollution is acceptable. Any form of emissions from domestic or commercial activity, should be measured and reduced to the lowest possible levels. More needs to be done to encourage people to use public transport, and to discourage people using their cars. All this will take time and will provoke opposition. But it has to be done, for the sake of Santiago’s health.
In the meantime, people are doing what they can to cope with the pollution. Some friends who recently moved from the south of Chile to work in Santiago have now decided to live outside the city. They’ll have to spend more time commuting in the city, but they reckon it’s a small price to pay for their health. Other friends have just moved to La Dehesa, where the air is better. Of course, these options are only available for those with money. For the rest of us, we can all do our bit by keeping car use to a minimum. And keep an eye on Conama’s daily updates – some days the air quality’s so low that it’s better not to go outside. Or even think about the air and why it smells so bad.
Has the Santiago smog changed your habits or your health?
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