Saltillo: Days with poor air quality will increase from 2024 to 2025

The number of days with air quality ranging from "bad" to "extremely bad" - the worst possible level - in Saltillo increased from 2024 to 2025.

During the first 309 days of last year, there were 127 days with one of these air quality levels, while in the same period this year, 139 have accumulated.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: 99% of the world's population suffers from poor air quality

Since 2023, VANGUARDIA has published on its front page the air quality report for the previous day, as well as the annual total of days with "bad" or "extremely bad" levels, based on the results released by the Coahuila Ministry of the Environment (SMA).

According to the Air and Health Index, which is used nationally with international standards, once air quality is considered "poor," the health risk is "high," and various recommendations are made to the population.

This parameter is reached when one of the so-called criteria pollutants ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), suspended particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and 10 micrometers (PM10) exceeds the recommended limits.

C RECEN DEATHS ASSOCIATED WITH POLLUTION

Between 2013 and 2023, the number of deaths associated with air pollution in Coahuila grew by 39 percent, according to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an organization based at the University of Washington.

According to their estimates, in 2013 there were 852 deaths associated with this risk factor, while in 2023 - the latest data available - the number rose to 1,183.

It was published in their public tools that the year 2022 was when the highest number of deaths was reached with 1,223.

PREPARE PREPARATION PROGRAM

In an interview with VANGUARDIA, the SMA stated that a prevention program is currently being prepared with local experts from the state's main universities and scientific research institutes.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: Saltillo: The suffocating panorama of air quality

Santiago Barrios Rosillo, Undersecretary of Environmental Management at the Secretariat, explained that the draft of the program has already been shared with external experts and consultants for analysis, and that once this process is completed, the document will be presented through official channels for its implementation.

For his part, Ciro Serrano, head of the Epidemiology Department of the Ministry of Health, noted that an increase in ischemic heart disease has been observed in the state and in Saltillo, possibly related to environmental factors.