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 Editorials | Environmental | July 2005 
Nations to Join Forces on Air Quality
 Julián Sánchez - El Universal
| | Nobel Prize winner Mario Molina said air quality should continue to improve in the capital if current programs are continued. |
NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Mexican government will work together on a project to measure pollution in Mexico City in 2006, said Mexican scientist and 1995 Nobel chemistry prize winner Mario Molina on Friday.
Molina made the announcement following the "Engineer Jack F. Ealy" workshop on scientific journalism here, sponsored by El Universal and the Institute of the Americas.
The US15 million program will measure air particles in Mexico City and outlying urban areas in the State of Mexico during a twomonth period. Samples of the suspended particles will be collected by plane at a high altitude. Air near the ground was already tested in 2003.
Molina said the project's main goal is to integrate the information obtained into a global plan to monitor pollution levels in different regional areas and determine the exact costs for public health and the environment.
Molina said the levels of pollution in the capital, notorious for its extremely poor air quality, are improving and that if current contingency plans are continued it should be possible to see the mountains and volcanoes that ring the Valley of Mexico on a daily basis within 10 years.
He added the biggest impact on improvements in air quality have been the use of newer, cleaner-running cars and buses in the city.
Molina is a native of Mexico who is now a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his discovery that chlorofluorocarbons were destroying the ozone layer. |
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