Photochemical Smog in Mexico City - Case Study Example

PHOTOCHEMICAL SMOG IN MEXICO CITY By (Name) Institution Instructor Class/Course City Date Introduction Living a healthy environment is of great concern for many nations in the world. One of the impacts of unhealthy living is poor sanitation, unclean environmental resources such as water, air among others. In this case however, the sources of pollution are critically analyzed in such a manner that their effects to the environment are also examined. Mexico is one of the countries in the world whose reputation has ranged from high to low, especially when the United Nations in 1992 mentioned the city as the cleanest in the world. However, from 1998, six years later, Mexico City has been termed as the most polluted city in the world, thereby making it the most dangerous city in the world to children. In this case therefore Fenn (2002) argues that Mexico City’s air has gone from among the world’s cleanest to among the dirtiest in the span of a generation. Although there are some signs of improvement, the photochemical smog in the city of Mexico tells otherwise. In trying to deal with air pollution issue in Mexico, it is rather noted that air pollution has been a major issue in Mexico City for decades. There is a normal haze of smog that hangs over the Mexico City all the time throughout the year obscuring the surrounding snow-capped mountains and endangering the health of its inhabitants despite several measures that the government and the relevant ministries having them in place (Jacobson, et al, 2012). The major factors that have contributed to these kinds of situations include the industrial growth, population boom from 1950s to now, and the air proliferation of vehicles within the city. The purpose of this paper is to examine and deeply analyze the photochemical smog in Mexico City and tries to link it with its various effects in terms of environmental hazards. Photochemical smog According to Fernandez, & Carson (2002), photochemical smog is an air pollution that is formed in the events of the air molecules hitting the molecules of different kinds of pollutants within the atmosphere. Normally visible, the smog forms chemical compounds that that results from the pollution effects. When air is polluted by inorganic and volatile compounds that are emitted as gases from specific solids or liquids different dangerous compounds are formed in the air. Some of these compounds such as nitrogen oxide mostly come from the smoke of vehicles, trains, and trucks etc in which case their contacts with sunlight lead to the formation of smog. As argued on earlier, some of these chemical are very harmful to health, not only to animal health, but also to both aquatic and plants. According to Onursal, & Gautam, (2007), the volatile organic components are the chemicals released into the atmosphere in their gaseous form and have adverse effects to health. Some of these volatile organic chemical contents are contained by products such as paints and other building materials. Analysis of Mexico City Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world, with the Mexican Republic having 31 states and the Federal District. The Mexican city in particular is formed from the Federal District and some other states within Mexico in order to make the Mexico City metropolitan area. In this city, one of the major environmental problems is the land use. According to Onursal, & Gautam, (2007), the land use within the area of Mexico is adversely distorted, mostly being mismanaged by the district government. Of all the metropolitan areas in the world, Mexico City is among the biggest with over twenty one million inhabitants living within the Valle de Mexico. A polluted air has myriad effects on people’s health and environment. Big cities such as Mexico City are normally prone to such pollution of the air. However, despite the fact that other large cities in the world such as Los Angeles have been prone to the pollution cases especially air pollution, Mexico City’s air pollution index is worse off as evidenced by the smog. Residential distribution: since 1987, according to, Molina, & Molina (2002), majorly, habitations have been concentrated within Iztapalapa with 16.36% of the total, followed by G.A.Madero (12%), A.Obregòn (10%) and Tlalpan (10%). The remaining facilities are spread throughout the other districts. Industry: Basically, according to the analysis of since 1987, the major industrial activities within the city are carried out in the northern sections of the Federal District. The industrial activities within the regions of Mexico City metropolitan such as M.Hidalgo, Iztapalapa, G.A.Madero, and Azcapotzalco were spread to be 27 percent, 16 percent, 14 percent, and 12 percent respectively, living the remaining industrial facilities spread throughout other sections of the city. Green areas distribution: when it comes to the green parks and related cool environmental areas, the Federal District is poor in green areas (i.e. parks etc.) and most of them are located in the south part of the city. M.Alta delegation represents 32% of the total with around 28,000 square kilometers followed by Tlalpan (30%) and Xochimilco (12%). The remaining areas are spread throughout the other districts. From the geographical point of view, human activities to produce poisons scenarios are generally inspired by geography. Mexico City is approximately 2,200 meters above the sea level since it is located in the extinct volcano. The lower atmospheric oxygen levels, according to Fernandez & Carson (2002) and this lower oxygen at such attitudes leads to incomplete combustion in engines as well as higher emissions of carbon dioxide and other compounds. When the sunlight bits on these emissions, a more than normal smog levels of fogs are formed. In the end, the smog will block the rays of the sun from reaching the earth’s atmosphere. This makes the sky very dark with ‘smogy’ layers as stated by Jacobson, et al (2012). The Metropolitan Environmental Commission has tried prioritizing Solving this problem. The recent efforts to curb emissions have been relatively successful. Various attempts by the government to improve the air quality have failed, since 1990s. The PICCA and PROAIRE (that involved banning the use of private cars one of the weekdays) failed miserably as this ban made some of the important sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing to fail massively. As argued by Fenn (2002), even though currently some small margin of control has been established on lead, sulphur, and carbon oxides, the level of air contamination is still on high, judging from the smog. Pollution According to Fernandez, & Carson, (2002), programs aimed at improving the air quality has been adopted by the environmental authorities as at 2010 as analyzed by the PROAIRE 2002-2010 program of Mexico. However, accurate measures were needed to determine how improving the quality of air can help reduce the environmental effects of the smog as well the spending on health. The relationship between the city’s inhabitants and air pollution is based on how people perceive pollution to be. The most important air pollutant of Mexico City are ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), precursors like nitrogen oxides (NOX), hydrocarbons (HC), and carbon monoxide (CO), that originate from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. At these altitudes, the partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) is far lower than at sea level, thus combustion may or may not take place, or take place but at ineffective level. Air pollution prevalence in Mexico City is a major factor which has been neglected. Some of the important issues that the government of Mexico intends to address include the perception of people in terms of air pollution. In addition to that, people need to realize a how the effects of air pollution trickles down to their lives and the lives of other organisms. Again people need to realize the need to reduce the effects of pollution in Mexico, as well as those that they are willing to surrender in order to make the air cleaner. According to Onursal, & Gautam, (2007), transportation is the major consumer of energy in the city, and this makes gases exhausted by the many vehicles, especially private ones, in the city be the main source of air pollution.. Literally, the prevailing atmospheric conditions affect Mexico City. Temperature changes as effected by the higher altitudes prevent the exhausted gases from spreading even into the valleys. In this case, gases that are very harmful are trapped in the air, hence the smog. The ozone, o3, which is produced only in the presence of sunlight, is a very unstable gas that has a characteristic of starting oxidation process with other materials faster than other gases like oxygen. A closer analysis of the ZMCM by Onursal, & Gautam, (2007) found out that there is a buildup of Ozone concentration above Mexico city has become one of the major environmental fears, that is not only affecting Mexico, but also world. Considering that the 0.11 ppm ozone level is normally passed, air pollution reduction measures must be taken into utmost consideration. Therefore the main sources include the atmospheric reactions of hydrocarbons (emitted from the internal combustion engine) and nitrogen oxides under the influence of ultraviolet in sunlight Onursal, & Gautam, (2007). On the other hand, the main effects include growth of trees and plants in general. One last thing that people of the Mexico City need to address is the motivation to solve the air pollution factors considering its metropolitan size that can extend the pollution vise to another level. Although the nation seems less active over the matter certain assistance has been given from other foreign countries that have dealt with the same issues. Impact on health One of the characteristics of smog is that it irritates and inflammatory as well. Constant exposure to such gases leads to membrane issues, respiratory problems, as well as irritation of throats. More than that, pneumonia and colds are also some of the effects of being exposed to smog. Asthmatic individuals are in more danger and as stated by Sharma & Sharma, (2010), asthmatic people are very sensitive to even small exposure to smog can kill them. Health professionals argue that the impact of the smog on people’s lungs can be directly compared with the effect that cigarettes have on lungs. The sources of pollution (the most serious pollutants) include road construction and dusts, burning forests, burning refuse in open air, among others. Sharma & Sharma, (2010) too adds to the analysis and says that the air of Mexico City contains other types of pollutants, mostly of vehicle exhausts. These pollutants like carbon monoxide, ozone, and nitrogen oxide among others are very dangerous and lead to death if exposed to (Jacobson, et al, 2012). The invisibility of these pollutants as compared to the pollutant of the previous studies makes them very dangerous to public health. Air pollution has great impact on the urban pollution as far as the nature of concentration is concerned. More importantly, over exposure to such polluted zones may seem irritating initially. However, as time pass by, the effects of the polluted air with such dangerous gases causes sickness and death. In reference to that, toxicological experimental studies relying mostly on animal tests and involve only few people to analyze the effect of the gases. On the other hand, Epidemiological studies rely on the effects on health that are measureable as a result of being exposed to these gases. During the experiment, the epidemiological process take shorter time on human considering the adverse chronic health effects that accrue to the human body. According to Molina & Molina (2002), Mexico City is mostly polluted through photochemical process. The analysis of the photochemical component of pollution is rather complex, but it is a must in order to determine the full length of pollution. Nitrogen present in the air and as an impurity in fuels converts to nitric oxide in exhaust gases. In the same way, impurities add to the pollution of the gases in the atmosphere. When toxic gases such as chlorine and sulphur are present in the polluted components, the resultant compounds that are formed also include the dangerous chlorine and sulphur compounds. Costs of pollution in Mexico City Policy and approaches that the government of Mexican meandered much on the direct and the cost of medicine as well as hospital in order and to touch on people (Jacobson, et al, 2012). With the aim of increasing productivity as well as efficiency level of determining the cost of pollution, the main focus of people is to pay fairly for health care and live longer. Therefore communications and social participation specialists realized that in order to understand peoples’ perceptions and assess indirect costs, promising costing of the pollution is mandatory. Control Strategies Just like in many other countries like London, air pollution in form of smog in the air has been made a major priority to be reduced. After the identifying that transport sector is one of the main sources of pollution in Mexico City, certain measures and policies must be adopted in order to induce transport efficiency programs. The ultimate aim of such programs will be to reduce the pollution level in the air. Some of the control strategies that have been proposed include use of fuels interchangeably. Through fuel reformulation, small margin of changes have been realized and accepted as far as fuel usage is concerned. The logic behind this situation is that the current engine technology, as argued by Onursal & Gautam ( 2007), has been realized to be the contributor of high ozone level emissions when in combination with metrological and geographic components. Car owners are sometimes encouraged to use public vehicles in order to reduce the pollution of the cars into the air. More than that, the use of private vehicle has been used in order to reduce fuel emissions. Control of the vehicle conditions has also been mentioned by Sharma & Sharma, (2010) as one of the control mechanisms by the local government. The scientific explanation of the engine analysis shows that incomplete burning of fuel within the engines directly produces carbon monoxide and other unburned hydrocarbons. The government therefore must enforce policies and strict rules that ensure regular engine maintenance. With such standards and measures, the pollution level in the Mexico City will be reduced and the photochemical smog layer seen above the city will disappear slowly. References Fenn, M. E. 2002. Urban air pollution and forests: resources at risk in the Mexico City Air Basin. New York [u.a.], Springer. Fernandez, L., & Carson, R. 2002. Both sides of the border: transboundary environmental management issues facing Mexico and the United States. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Jacobson, M. Z., & Jacobson, M. Z. 2012. Air pollution and global warming: history, science, and solutions. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Molina, L. T., & Molina, M. J. 2002. Air quality in the Mexico megacity: an integrated assessment. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Onursal, B., & Gautam, S. P. 2007. Vehicular air pollution experiences from seven Latin American urban centers. Washington, DC, World bank. Sharma, P. D., & Sharma, P. D. 2010. Ecology and environment. Meerut, Rastogi Publications. Read More