Air Quality: Smog Map of Santiago

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Air Quality: Smog Map of Santiago

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Here is a government smog map for Santiago Chile. It is a useful map, bookmark it and check it before you go outside to exercise or whatever. (This week it's been raining, so smog levels are temporarily way down).

But before using this map, there are two extremely important problems you should be aware of, and adjust for as best you can:

1. What is measured - ICAP
Santiago's Quality of Particulated Air (ICAP) only measures, well, particles in the air. More specifically, PM-10, which are counted per cubic meter. So when PM-10 levels reach 30, it means that for every cubic meter of air, there are 30 particles with a diameter of 10 microns.

PM-10 is a great place to start when measuring air quality. These microscopic particles dig deep into the respiratory tissue and increase the risk of throat cancer. Their PM-2.5 compatriots dig deep into lungs, and portend lung cancer. Once diagnosed, lung cancer patients have a 15% survival rate after five years.

But an accurate measure of air quality is so much more than just particles. There are chemicals, too, and Santiago isn't measuring them. Or warning its citizens about them. Or taking any direct action to reduce these chemicals.

As I pointed out last year in a post about air quality in Santiago Chile, a study conducted in 2004 by the University of Santiago points out that the government is failing to prevent 40%-50% of the days that Santiago residents are exposed to dangerous carbon monoxide levels.

Live Los Angeles air quality monitoring uses the Air Quality Index, which in addition to PM-10, factors the following:

-Ozone (O3)
-Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)
-Carbon Monoxide (CO)

2. What is "good"
Santiago's ICAP declares that levels of PM-10 up to 100 is "good". Up to 200 is "regular". And only when it becomes "bad", at 200+, do vehicle restrictions begin going into place.

Unfortunately, half of what's considered "good" in Chile is considered extremely dangerous in the developed world.

An article about smog in Thailand notes:

In London, the United States and the European Union as a whole it is considered a serious pollution ‘episode’ if the PM-10 level exceeds 50...

In Chile, up to 4x that is A-Okay.

Patricio Pérez, the author of the above mentioned carbon monoxide study, was recently quoted in an article about smog in Santiago:

It's as if we were swimming at a beach not suitable to bathe in. Santiago's air, during four or five months (each year), is not suitable to breathe, and the government throws these lifesavers when there are people who are 'drowning', so that they don't 'die'".

It's true. The government only takes action after children and the elderly are forced into hospitals.

For all her motherly daycare initiatives, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet didn't once mention smog in her state of the union address Wednesday.

Last week was particularly bad. The Icelandic grad student who told me about the smog map writes:

I hadn´t noticed the smog too much (well of course I could see it) but it first started affecting me last week, when I started having sore eyes and coughing like crazy. It´s nasty shit.

And according to 123.cl, Santiago hospital visits for respiratory problems shot up by 30%:

María Teresa Parada, a lung and respiratory system doctor at Las Condes Clinic, said that, "it's like smoking, exactly the same. If this stays the same...it will provoke inflammatory damage that becomes chronic."

That's not hyperbole. And just like smoking, the negative health effects go on and on. Not only is air pollution thought to cause blood clots, but scientists believe children's mental development is impeded by smog.

In other words, raising children in Santiago is likely a form of child abuse.

And extending the analogy, the government's negligence to find and enact a real solution, as well as their abysmally unhealthy standards, is abuse of its citizens. From the article:

If the ICAP is higher than 200, an "environmental alert" is called, if it is greater than 300 "pre-emergency" an when it exceeds 500 an "emergency" is declared, for the damage that these particles represent upon entering the human respiratory system.

The objective of the government's package of measures is not very ambitious in this regard: it hopes not to exceed the 22 "environmental alerts" and the six "pre-emergencies" that were registered in 2007.

There are many causes of smog, and many solutions which aren't being taken. On the automobile end, if enough people stopped driving (as recommended) then it would completely collapse the already dysfunctional public transportation system in Santiago, Transantiago.

Pérez advocates that smoke-producing factories relocate outside of Santiago. There's a thought.

In the meantime, I suggest you stop breathing.