Mexican regulations to improve air quality are either ignored or outdated, and this has a serious impact on human health, according to a complaint filed by five non-governmental organizations. Under a government ruling, the state-owned oil company Pemex was required to begin distributing ultra-low-sulfur diesel as of February 2009, but it has yet to comply.

“The current standards, which set permissible maximum levels of polluting emissions, are the equivalent of standards in force in the United States and Europe six years ago, which means the government urgently needs to review them,” said Hilda Martínez, the head of Air Quality and Climate Change at the Centre for Sustainable Transportation, one of the five organizations that filed the complaint.

The changes they are demanding include the updating of regulations on suspended particulate emissions, which are harmful to human health, for light and heavy vehicles, and the establishment of vehicle efficiency standards, Martínez told Tierramérica.