Much Publicity--but Little Action--on Pollution Perils : Mexico City’s Attack on Smog Is Mostly Words

MEXICO CITY —  Public outrage over the pollution of Mexico City’s atmosphere has prompted the Mexican government to announce a wide-ranging series of steps to clean up the air.

The steps include restrictions on motor vehicle traffic in downtown Mexico City; the closure of some factories and the installation of anti-pollution devices at others, and the adoption of staggered work shifts.

The government has given considerable publicity to its campaign, but it has yet to make it clear when any of the steps will be taken. The only immediate relief that officials have been able to offer is advice to people bothered by the murky air.

Alicia Barcena, an assistant secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development and Ecology, suggested: “In times of high pollution, close your mouth and breathe through your nose.”

Topic of Debate

Trying to get everyone to shut his or her mouth may have had something to do with the spate of government announcements. The quality of the air in Mexico City, with its population of about 17 million, has been a topic of heated debate for years, and each resurgence of the issue accents the government’s long record of failure to tackle the problem.

Just being in Mexico City and breathing the air, according to university studies, is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

A private group called the Mexican Assn. for Studies in the Defense of Consumers cited the results of a survey that it said had found that seven in every 10 people in Mexico City have some kind of ailment related to the pollution problem.

A Foul Christmas

The latest public outcry came after several weeks of particularly heavy smog. On a day just before Christmas, the air was fouler than ever, and environmental activists were upset that the government failed to issue any health advisories.

As it turned out, officials in the Ministry of Urban Development and Ecology, which is responsible for dealing with the problem, were on vacation at the time.

“It’s not exaggerated to say that the city is becoming a gas chamber,” Fernando Cesarman, an environmental activist and member of an organization called the Group of 100 Against Pollution, said the other day. “We know the pollution statistics are high. There’s no reason for the government to keep them to itself.”

In mid-January the Ministry of Urban Development and Ecology began issuing daily reports on pollution levels. The government has long monitored air quality in Mexico City, but until then it had not published its findings.

The reports grade air quality on a scale that ranges from “favorable for all types of physical activities” to “intolerance to exertion in the healthy population.”

Many observers were somewhat mystified by the first report, which described the air downtown as being in the “favorable” range, even though anyone in the Zocalo, the city’s central plaza, could barely see across from City Hall to the cathedral.

“I’m not sure anyone believes these figures,” said a diplomat whose embassy monitors air pollution levels.

Later, a government spokesman said that some of the 25 official pollution monitoring stations were not functioning that day and that statistics would not be forthcoming from every part of the city.

The data made public by the government confirmed what everyone here already knew: Breathing was somewhat like inhaling the contents of a vacuum-cleaner bag.

On another day, pollution was measured at 350 to 400 micrograms per cubic meter. In the United States, a volume of 260 micrograms per cubic meter is considered hazardous to health.

The level of carbon monoxide in the air also reached dangerous levels: 28.6 parts per million in downtown Mexico City, compared with the U.S. safe maximum of 9 parts per million.

“This worries us,” Alfonso Cipres, head of the independent Mexican Ecology Movement, said recently. “The government needs to take radical action.”

Pollution control is virtually unpracticed in Mexico City. Leaded gasoline is used in most motor vehicles, and few factories are equipped to filter smoke or other pollutants before they are discharged into the atmosphere.

Winter Is Worst Time

Winter is the season of severe pollution. Cold, still morning air is often trapped below warmer air heated by the sun, producing the classic thermal inversion.

The inversion traps the haze produced by the city’s 2.5 million cars and 130,000 factories against the floor of the Valley of Mexico. And at this time of year, there is little rain to flush the pollutants out of the air.

In the pollution cycle, the worst is yet to come. February, when the dry season is at its driest, usually brings windstorms that whip up dust from the parched lake beds on the outskirts of the city.

The result is a thick haze laced with bacteria from waste dumps and untreated sewage, and virtually everyone in the city is exposed to various throat and stomach disorders.

In the last few days, the government has unveiled several proposals for cleaning up the air. Mayor Ramon Aguirre said the city plans to put pollution-control devices on public buses. He did not say when.

The Ministry of Urban Development and Ecology, the mayor said, is studying proposals to move out of the city factories that have a poor record for pollution. And auto traffic may be restricted on a rotating system based on license plate numbers.

$40 Million Earmarked

In all, the government is committed to spending $40 million on pollution control this year.

But environmental activists accuse the government of talking a lot and doing little. And the record seems to bear out the critics.

Last summer, Guillermo Carrillo, the secretary for urban development and ecology, said he was sending a new pollution control bill to President Miguel de la Madrid. Nothing more has been heard of the measure.

Carrillo also announced talks with businessmen aimed at working out a plan for the installation of pollution control equipment. No timetable has been announced.

The government has promised repeatedly to limit growth in the city and to move elsewhere not only factories but entire branches of the government. Almost nothing has actually been done.