[sustran] Smog comes early this year to Santiago

[Christopher Zegras]

Courtesy of Chip News www.chip.cl
  --  SANTIAGO WITH PRE EMERGENCY SMOG CONDITIONS.
Sixty percent of Santiago's non-catalytic automobile fleet will be
restricted from traveling today and many manufacturing
operations curtailed because of a sharp deterioration in air
quality.  Residents are also prohibited from using fireplaces, with
or without double burning chambers.
        Non-catalytic cars with license plate numbers ending in 2, 0,
3, 4, 5, and 8 will be off the streets, or an estimated 280,000 of
Santiago's 600,000 automobiles.
        Today's smog pre-emergency restriction is one of the
earliest on record for Santiago area.  Last year the first pre-
emergency came on May 8.
        Authorities say that although air quality in the Metropolitan
region is improving, they expect more "pre-emergency"
declarations this year because of better monitoring devices and
systems analysis.
        A total of seven monitoring stations are in operation this
year, compared to only four last year, thus giving a more complete
reading of the whole metropolitan region's smog situation.  The
indexes evaluating the pollution have been speeded up (taking
only 24 hours to complete, rather than the 48 hours needed last
year) and new laws taking effect later this month will allow
authorities to declare a pre-emergency almost immediately once
pollution norms have been exceeded.
 Christopher Zegras       http://www.iiec.org                 /\   /^\
 Instituto Internacional para la Conservacion de Energia /^\ /_o\ /   \
 General Flores 150, Providencia, Santiago, CHILE       /^^^/_\< /^^^^^\
 Tel: (56 2) 236 9232 Fax: 236 9233                    /   (*)/(*)      \