[Santiasco] Chilean's air norms are the most laxist of Latin America

I discovered recently an article from 2015 comparing the norms of air quality in Latin America. It provides some interesting perspective about the air quality in Latin America:

every single country is have a different scale, with different conventions for the colors, concentration breakpoints and nomenclature.

It complemented my understanding of the particular situation of Santiago (i.e. it's not that Santiago produces more pollution than other cities, but that it cannot afford to produce pollution at the same level as other cities in the world):

For instance, for Santiago de Chile, it is both the topography formed by the Andes in the East preventing the pollution from dispersing latteraly, and the constant stream of air from the Hadley cell circulation which prevents the pollution from escaping upwards (creating an inverstion [sic] layer).

And it confirmed what I already observed, that the Chilean air quality standards are much more relaxed than the ones from the US.

But it is the following array which made this information more concrete for me:

The third and fourth row (range 100 to 200), labeled as "Regular" ("Usual") in Chile, receive labels such as "Unhealthy", "Muy Malo" ("Very Bad"), "Precaucion" ("Precaution"), "Inadecuado" ("Inadequate"), "Muito Ruim" ("Very Bad"). At this level of polution in Chile, NO MEASURES are taken to reduce polution (such measures start at the next level, "Alerta").

The reactions from Chileans with whom I shared the information follow two templates: people from low social levels are resigned and feel they can't do anything about the situation, while people from high social levels like to believe that they live in a place where the air quality is better (close to the sea, or high in the mountain) and advise me to do the same. Neither group believe in changing the situation :(

It's not only in Santiago that the air quality  is getting worse:  all over the world, cities are setting up norms to deal with air pollution and keep it at "reasonable" levels. The Chilean approach seems to be more about improving the "appearances" by changing the alert thresholds than about truly dealing with the problem. I wonder which effects such a policy will have on the life expectancy of the inhabitants of Santiago (and on mine)...

[Red Nose] Igor and Renata

This weekend, Igor and Renata visited me, on their way between Ushuaia and Atacama during their Honeymoon. It was a lot of fun!

We went briefly to the cultural center of "La Moneda" where the current exhibition is about China: we could not resist and took pictures with the painted dragons :)

I etched a glass in guise of wedding present:

They liked it a lot!

[Santiasco] This year will be worst than the previous one

They said last year that the winter 2015 was the worst since 1995. It seems to me that the winter 2016 will be worse: I already lost count of the number of alerta and pre Emergencias, and we are not even yet in Winter! 

I am glad that I am travelling in places with a better air, but a bit worried for my friends in Santiago and other cities of Chile: I never saw the "very unhealthy: tag before on this application:

Note: it is the very  first time that I see the label "hazardous":

Note also how the people from LAS CONDES might have the information that their air is "bueno" by Chilean standard when it is "unhealthy for some" (i. e.  children and elders should avoid any exertion)  by US standard... 

[Santiasco] Alerta Ambiental

I did not see the air of Santiago that bad for a long time. 

The mayor of the Santiago declared an "alerta ambiental", which means restrictions on 1/3 of cars without catalytic exhaust pipe, prohibition to burn wood, and advice to avoid physical exercise for all:

<quote>
Intendencia RM @IntendenciaRM 7h Alerta ambiental para este domingo 29 afecta a vehículos s/sello verde 5 y 6. Prohibido encender calefactores a leña intendenciametropolitana.gov.cl/n10151_29-05-2… via Twitter Web Client
</quote>

It is bad (and indeed according to the standards of North America this is the worst category) but note how this situation is only half way in the scale of categories of pollution alert for Chile:

Last winter (remember that it is Winter in the south  when it is Summer in the north) the pollution went all the way to "pre-emergencia" in Santiago, and this year some cities already went to "pre-emergencia" and "emergencia". 

And we are only end of may, at the beginning of the winter: the worst month is supposed to be August... 

[Pollution] From "Alerta Ambiental" to "Emergencia Ambiental"

Winter is here, and with it the heating burning wood, which causes massive pollution in the cities of Chile when the weather does not clean up.
In preparation for the lack of wind this week, the government declared this monday

• "Alerta Ambiental" in the cities of Santiago, Talca, and Maule;
  
• "Preemergencia" in the city of Temuco; and
  
• "Emergencia ambiental" in the cities of Valdivia and Osorno.
  

The air is still good, it is preemptive, but a reminder of bad things to come...

[Santiago] back to Santiasco

I was in Algarrobo this week-end, an improvised trip to escape to the pollution, to check if the change of air helps with the constant exhaustion and intermittent headache.

While in Algarrobo, I felt a bit better but still tired, and I started to think that maybe I was imagining things. I did not work to my full potential, but I did work well on some stuff, I did feel inspired and drew a nice penguin on a jar. I ran twice, helped at the house with stuff, cooked.

I took the bus back to Santiago this morning. I was fully awake in the bus and working, but when I arrived in Santiago (still in the bus, between pajarito and Alameda) I felt exhausted and my eyes were crying. I am in the appartment and I feel a headache again, and my eyes are sore, and I feel exhausted, I feel I wanna lie down and sleep forever untill I feel better.

The sky looks so grey here, it could be that it's just the clouds being low. I feel exhausted, it could be that I woke up early, or that I am depressed, overwhelmed with all that I have to do (I did not work too well last week because I felt sick). I do think that it plays a role but I don't think that this is all.

At some point I will have to trust my intuition, which Chileans told me to ignore for so many years: the air quality here is making ME sick, whether I am more sensitive to it than others or whether the others are lying to themselves. I have to leave this city. Just buying a house outside of the city and coming back during the day for classes and meetings will not be sufficient. I need to leave in a place with a better air.

[Santiago] Brown Air

Wednesday I went to an Astronomy observatory one on of Santiago 's hills in one of the "good"  neighbourhood, for a meeting. I took the following picture :

[Chile] Air quality and the dangers of Sport

A few weeks ago, I felt particularly "depressed" on Friday morning, and again on Saturday morning. Not wanting to give up to depression, I forced myself to go to a sport social event (http://www.shhh.cl/) in order to "fight the blues".  I ran 7kms with some friends, but almost passed out on a couch at a friend's place for 40mns. When I told the story to a friend on the next day (Sunday), she told me that I was crazy to run 7kms when the whole city was in "environmental emergency"!

When I went to see the doctor one day later (Monday), she told me that the pollution in Santiago this year has reached record heights and duration, and that even the government admitted that those levels had not been reached since 1999, 16 years ago. Given that I don't watch TV nor listen to radio, she advised me to install an application on my phone to monitor daily the quality of the air, or at least before doing any kind of sport, even on a static exercise bike in the afternoon (which means almost every day for me).

I found several applications, but one caught my attention in particular, which compares the Chilean labeling of air conditions with the labeling according to USA's norms: here is an example of a reasonably normal day:

I was intrigued. The norms for the Chilean labeling are given on the official page where the government announces restrictions on which cars can drive during air quality emergencies (http://portal.mma.gob.cl/pronostico-rm/). I found the norms for the US labeling on Wikipedia (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/). The thresholds for alerts in Santiago are on a completely distinct scale from the recommendations of the World Health Organization's. For example, just taking PM 2.5 and PM 10:

• The World Health Organization's recommended maximum PM2.5 level is 25 μg/m3, while Chilean's norms consider a value of 46.5 µg∕m3 of MP 2.5 as "bueno"  on [2015-07-06 Mon]. On [2015-06-22 Mon] it was 98.8 µg∕m3 of MP 2.5 as "alerta"...
• The World Health Organization's recommended maximum PM10 level is 50 µg/m3.  At Parque O Higgins on  [2015-07-06 Mon], it was 74.1 µg∕m3 or "bueno". On [2015-06-22 Mon] it was 173.6 74.1 µg∕m3 or "regular"....

I am not the first one to worry about this discrepancy: other foreigners have commented on it in the past (http://southernpacificreview.com/.../santiago-air.../). Chilean's reactions, as far as I saw, range from resigned to amused: when told about this, a colleague, single mother of two, told me "well, I guess if we looked at US labeling, we would never go out of home". And she is right: the US labeling given by the application are almost always "unhealthy for some" or "unhealthy" for the place where I live and work, "Parque O'Higgins"...

I was advised to move to another place: many colleagues live in "Las Condes", which is higher in the mountains and where the air ratings are consistently better, with a commuting time ranging between 2*40mns driving a car and 2*1.5h taking public transportation. Some staff live well outside the city, and commute for 2*2h a day, sleeping and reading in the bus. The air quality is better in general, but even those places were affected during the air quality emergency.  

Beyond the thoughts about moving to live in a place where I can breath better, there is a more personal morale to the story: several times before, I learned after spending a week-end feeling "depressed" that there had been an air quality emergency, but as my energy level did not improve much when the alert had been removed, I thought that it was a coincidence. Now that I know that a "regular" status of the air quality can hide very distinct levels of air quality (according to US and WHO standards at least), I have to revisit my assumption: I will try to learn the distinction between depression and asphyxia! 

References:

• http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/  for the recommendations from the World Health Organization mentioned above;
• http://portal.mma.gob.cl/pronostico-rm/ for the map generated by the Chilean government;
• http://southernpacificreview.com/js/airquality.html for an analysis of the air quality by US's standards in real time; and 
• http://southernpacificreview.com/.../santiago-air.../ for the explanation of how the table is computed.

Carricature of JyBy on Unicycle (in copper)

In 2008, I had some caricature of myself drawn by Claudio, an artist from the "Plaza de Armas" in Santiago of Chile. 4 years later, Claudio's neighbours, Alberto and Ivan Navarette, adapted his caricature in copper! The caricature feature several traits that I was showing at the time at the Plaza (I came several time unicycling or with some juggling stuff, dressed in rainbow colours and Claudio knows that I like dragons) and of Santiago, with the Andes in the background, and the high towers of Santiago. I love the caricature and its copper adaptation!

Clever Dog

L'intelligence des chiens de Santiago m’étonne toujours. Celui-ci attendait le feu vert pour traverser la route!

The cleverness of dogs in Santiago never ceases to amaze me. This one was waiting for the green light before crossing the street!

La inteligencia de los perros de Santiago siempre me sorprende. Este estaba esperando la luz verde para cruzar la calle!

Il promenait son déjeuner comme un humain en ballade, je l'ai suivi un peu.

He was holding on to his lunch box, very human-like, I followed him.

El tenia en su boca una caja de almuerzo, muy parecido a un humano transformado en un canino, yo le sigue un poco.

Je l'ai perdu de vue puis retrouvé 500m plus loin, en train de manger le contenu de la boite. Il avait l'air très content, et très intelligent!

I found him 500m farther, eating the leftovers of someone else's dinner from the box. Clever Dog!

Le encontré algunos 500m mas lejos, comiendo el contenido de la caja. Listo perro!