Respiratory disease and particulate air pollution in Santiago Chile: Contribution of erosion particles from fine sediments

Air pollution in Santiago is a serious problem every winter, causing thousands of cases of breathing problems within the population. With more than 6 million people and almost two million vehicles, this large city receives rainfall only during winters. Depending on the frequency of storms, statistic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental pollution (1987) 2014-04, Vol.187, p.202-205
Main Authors: Garcia-Chevesich, Pablo A., Alvarado, Sergio, Neary, Daniel G., Valdes, Rodrigo, Valdes, Juan, Aguirre, Juan José, Mena, Marcelo, Pizarro, Roberto, Jofré, Paola, Vera, Mauricio, Olivares, Claudio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air
Air Pollutants - analysis
Air pollution
Air Pollution - statistics & numerical data
Biological and medical sciences
Chile - epidemiology
Cities - statistics & numerical data
Environmental pollutants toxicology
Erosion
Humans
Medical sciences
Particulate Matter - analysis
PM10
Respiratory Tract Diseases - epidemiology
Santiago
Seasons
Sedimentation
Toxicology
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Summary:Air pollution in Santiago is a serious problem every winter, causing thousands of cases of breathing problems within the population. With more than 6 million people and almost two million vehicles, this large city receives rainfall only during winters. Depending on the frequency of storms, statistics show that every time it rains, air quality improves for a couple of days, followed by extreme levels of air pollution. Current regulations focus mostly on PM10 and PM2.5, due to its strong influence on respiratory diseases. Though more than 50% of the ambient PM10s in Santiago is represented by soil particles, most of the efforts have been focused on the remaining 50%, i.e. particulate material originating from fossil and wood fuel combustion, among others. This document emphasizes the need for the creation of erosion/sediment control regulations in Chile, to decrease respiratory diseases on Chilean polluted cities. We emphasize the urgent need to implement erosion and sediment control politics in Santiago, to decrease PM10 concentrations in the city's air, based on the US experience.
ISSN:0269-7491
1873-6424
DOI:10.1016/j.envpol.2013.12.028