In some ways, Santiago is an attractive city. Air quality, however, is not among them. Santiago is one of the smoggier cities in Latin America. According to a 2004 World Bank study (PDF link), it even beat out former reigning champion Mexico City in “particulate matter,” which are the little bits of crap that make it hurt to breathe (as opposed to gaseous toxins which just quietly give you cancer).
You might think that 4 years in the LA area would have conditioned me to accept a little bit of grit with my oxygen, but you’d be mistaken. Los Angeles, the United States’ smoggiest city, clocks in with with a measly 34 μg of particulates per m3 of air. Santiago boasts a robust 60 μg/m3, but still doesn’t come anywhere close to the big leagues of “developing” [lung cancer] cities. Cairo puts them all (or, really, itself) to shame with a whopping 169 μg/m3, nearly 5 times the level in Los Angeles.
Breathe deep, son!
I’ve been nursing an irritating cough and intermittent headache for two or three days now, and really would not be surprised if the air here were at least partially to blame. To be fair to Santiago, they have taken steps to implement pollution controls. Apparently, the situation has improved significantly since the 1990s (although not much in the last 9 years). They’re also in the process of replacing their fleet of diesel public transit buses with newer, natural gas-powered models.
Santiago, like many other smog-plagued cities, also suffers from unfortunate geography. The nearby (and usually invisible) mountains tend to trap in the smog. According to people who live here, winter is typically the worst season for smog, because thermal inversion holds it near the ground.
The photo above was taken on a recent hiking trip up Cerro Pochoco on the outskirts of the city near the affluent Las Condes neighborhood. It was a pretty steep climb, but once we reached the top, the view was almost as striking for what you couldn’t see as what you could. On the plus side, it rained a whole bunch today, so tomorrow should be clear and beautiful.
I don’t know what the “particulate” numbers are, but Tina took this shot of the sun from Beijing on a “clear” day.
Sara just got back from Egypt, she was telling me about the air pollution and how it’s like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. yeay for crappy pollution.
Jeff was showing me Istanbul pictures, and that looked pretty soupy, too. Not sure if it had Santiago’s delightful Eau del Aeropuerto aroma, though.