The service life of these vehicles is no more than five years, but there are buses that have been circulating throughout the capital since the 1980s, Álvarez said.”]Guatemala City – The nation’s levels of air pollution are alarming and the problem gets worse each year, according to the Annual Report on Air Monitoring.
Authored by the Universidad de San Carlos (USAC) since 1995, the report concludes the main cause of poor air quality is exhaust from vehicles, specifically those used in public transportation.
Johny Álvarez, director of the Air Monitoring Laboratory at USAC, said the levels of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide have increased considerably because many buses have not been replaced by their manufacturers’ recommended date.
“The service life of these vehicles is no more than five years, but there are buses that have been circulating throughout the capital since the 1980s,” Álvarez said.
Governmental authorities allow bus companies to use old vehicles if they meet minimum requirements, which include having a valid driver’s license, paying taxes on the bus and possessing accident insurance.
However, a vehicle is not required to pass an emissions test.
There are at least 900,000 vehicles on the city streets each day – and the number grows by at least 50,000 each year, according to estimates by the city’s Mayor’s Office.
When nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide come into contact with the clouds during the winter, acid rain is created, causing skin lesions and pulmonary and digestive illnesses.
About 29% of children between the ages of 8 and 13 nationwide suffer from pulmonary afflictions such as asthma, emphysema, respiratory infections and allergies, according to a report published by the Asociación Guatemalteca de Neumología in 2006. In 2000, the figure was 20% for the same age group.
Respiratory illnesses are the main cause of infant illness worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Given their ability to penetrate the respiratory track more deeply, suspended particles can cause serious irritation to airways and make symptoms of asthma and cardiovascular disease even worse,” the Universidad de San Carlos report concludes.
Álvarez said the government must do more to improve air quality.
“We have been publishing this report and making the same recommendations for counteracting pollution for the last 15 years,” he said.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://thecostaricanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/guate21.jpg” align=”right” captiontext=”Respiratory illnesses are the main cause of infant illness worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).”]The level of concentration of suspended particles in Guatemala City per year is on average 90 micrograms per cubic meter. The maximum acceptable level is 20 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the WHO.
Abelardo Pérez, evaluator with the National Program on Climate Change with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), said the main obstacle in improving air quality in Guatemala City is the lack of legislation to regulate the amount of exhaust allowed into the environment.
“There are no laws to regulate emissions of pollutants,” he said.
But that could change soon.
USAC, the ministries of the Environment and Health, and the National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology (INSIVUMEH) are preparing a bill for Congress that would establish parameters for exhaust gas emissions.
The bill is being evaluated by the Consejo Superior Universitario – one Guatemalan institution allowed to introduce bills into Congress – and there’s no timeframe for the legislation to be sent to Congress.
If approved, the law would apply to all vehicles but not to industries, which are responsible for producing 30% of pollutants in the air, according to USAC’s Air Monitoring Laboratory.
The solutions
The Air Monitoring Laboratory has repeatedly recommended the use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol, which emit less carbon dioxide.
Fuel used in diesel engines has high concentrations of sulfur, one of the main pollutants of air.
MARN and the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD) are working on the First Inventory of Pollutants for Metropolitan Guatemala City, which will quantify the different sources of pollution and identify opportunities to improve air quality.
Fortunately for Guatemalans, the country’s topography favors ventilating the capital with a wind that blows from north to south.
“In Guatemala [City] the wind conditions are different from those in Mexico City, where pollution stagnates because there is no wind,” said Juan Guillermo Orozco, a consultant on environmental health with the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) in Guatemala.[captionpix imgsrc=”https://thecostaricanews.com/wp
