Development & Aid, Environment, Tierramerica

Central America's Suffocating Cities

TEGUCIGALPA, Mar 10 2003 (IPS) - The level of solid particles in the air in several Central American capitals violates international health standards.

– Breathing can be dangerous in certain areas of Central America's big cities, such as the Honduran capital, where the air is the most contaminated by particulate matter of any urban area in the region.

The atmosphere in the political and economic centers of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica registers total suspended particulate (TSP) levels higher than the maximum accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO), of 75 micrograms per cubic meter of air, sources told Tierramérica.

This solid material is produced by the combustion of gasoline or other fuels, or comes from the dust of minerals or metals, paint pigments, pesticides, ash, and smoke from burned oils.

The most harmful are PM-10 particles, so called because they have a diameter of less than 10 micros, which allow them to enter the human respiratory system and settle in the lungs. The allowable limit set by the WHO is an average of 50 micrograms of PM-10 per cubic meter of air.

Air pollution affects the health of more than 80 million Latin Americans, says the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a United Nations regional agency. The harm is manifest in the increased incidence of asthma and allergies, and even severe respiratory infections that can lead to death.

In 2001, Tegucigalpa reported an average concentration of 613 micrograms of TSP, according to a study by Swisscontact, an international aid foundation.

“Recordings at specific points in that capital showed up to 900 micrograms of TSP,” while contamination with PM-10 reached 161 micrograms, Rosendo Majano, assistant technician for Swisscontact's clean air project, told Tierramérica.

The foundation has been tracking air quality in Central America since 1993, and is urging the governments to improve fuels to burn cleaner, replace older vehicles and make public transportation more efficient.

“These countries already have regulations in place. The problem is that the laws are not enforced,” said Majano.

In Guatemala City, with an estimated 700,000 vehicles circulating in the streets, atmospheric contamination with TSP varied from 300 to 578 micrograms in different parts of the capital, according to measurements taken in 2001 by the local University of San Carlos.

Pablo Oliva, in charge of the study, told Tierramérica that his team had readings of 45 to 59 micrograms of PM-10.

A Swisscontact study in Guatemala City recorded an annual average of 237 micrograms TSP and 54 micrograms PM-10.

Oliva noted that in 1997 Guatemala approved regulations for gas emissions, but it was overturned the following year. In 1997 and 1998, air pollution was reduced, but in 1999 shot back up, he said.

Guatemala is once again in the process of establishing laws to control emissions of contaminating gases. The authorities in Honduras are working on drawing up similar regulations.

Since 1991, Guatemala has banned the use of leaded gasoline, a measure that was not adopted by Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica until 1999.

In Managua, some 120,000 vehicles circulate without having undergone emissions testing. The total vehicle count for Nicaragua is 224,000, with 150,000 circulating through the capital.

The country is turning into “a cemetery for scrap metal,” because there is a high volume of imports of old vehicles, says Roberto Dávila, researcher at Nicaragua's National University of Engineering.

Air pollution measurements made in 2001 at six locations in the city, coordinated by Dávila, indicated up to 70 micrograms of PM-10 and up to 500 micrograms TSP.

The ministries of environment, transportation and infrastructure, and the Nicaraguan police have promised to strictly enforce the law aimed at improving the capital's air quality.

In San Salvador, with around 350,000 cars, buses and trucks, the annual average for PM-10 was 60 micrograms in 2001, while total solid particulates reached 97 micrograms, according to Swisscontact.

Meanwhile, in the metropolitan area of San José, home to 60 percent of the nearly four million Costa Ricans, 70 percent of land transport vehicles are found.

The concentration of solid particulates in the atmosphere of the Costa Rican capital was 230 micrograms per cubic meter in 2001, with PM-10 at 35 micrograms, says Swisscontact.

Vehicle emissions are also the greatest producer of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides.