Santiago Seeks Clean Air

1.6 million automobiles are responsible for 53 percent of the Chilean capital's air pollution.

SANTIAGO - Fewer privately owned cars and more public transportation is the axis of a now anti-pollution offensive in the Chilean capital, home to more than five million people and a contender - alongside Mexico City and Sao Paulo - for Latin America's city with worst air pollution.

The new regulations of the ''Atmospheric Decontamination and Prevention Plan'' call for exclusive lanes on city streets for buses, the incorporation of new technologies and the expansion of restrictions against vehicles that use leaded gas.

Though some sectors consider them to be arbitrary and insufficient, the measures announced in March by the Ricardo Lagos government are proving successful, say the authorities.

Several major roadways have been set aside for public transport vehicles during rush hours, and bus-only lanes were created on Bernardo O'Higgins Boulevard, Santiago's main thoroughfare.

As a result, the average travel time for individual cars has been slashed 20 percent, according to government figures.

Since the 1980s, Santiago has been through various phases in the battle against air pollution - one the population tends to believe has been lost, especially in the winter months when periods of critical pollution mean a rise in respiratory infections and another massive wave of visits to health centers.

In the last decade, restrictions on vehicle circulation have been tightened, outdated buses and cars have been banned from city streets, and use of unleaded gas began.

This has forced a renovation of the car fleet circulating in the city, expanding the use of unleaded gasoline, which pollutes 80 percent less than conventional fuels.

And there has been a lowering of the maximum air pollution levels required for this city - which is surrounded by mountains - to call an alert, a pre-emergency or environmental emergency.

According to a 1992 report by international environmental watchdog Greenpeace, Santiago's atmosphere received 440,661 tons of pollutants each year - the equivalent of each capital resident smoking seven cigarettes a day.

The sources of emissions of other toxic substances have been eliminated or reduced while the number of vehicles circulating has increased, reaching the current balance: experts say that the 1.6 million cars are responsible for 53 percent of Santiago's air pollution.

Based on the results of a public and voluntary consultation conducted in May 2000, and following a long legal battle that has yet to be resolved, the government decided to prolong its restrictions that allow only those cars adapted to consume unleaded gasoline to circulate.

The measure, however, can only be implemented during episodes of pre-emergency or environmental emergency, and not during days of ''alert'' - which are much more frequent, though less critical.

In early May, 19 senators from right-wing parties presented a petition before the Constitutional Court to annul the regulation, saying it is unconstitutional, arbitrary, inefficient and an attack on property rights.

For environmental groups, however, the lack of restrictions for cars running on unleaded gas goes too far because they are the source of pollution just like vehicles using conventional fuels. They are just as responsible for suspended particulate matter in the air - raised from unpaved streets -, and they pollute more as far as ground-level ozone emissions.

* Gustavo González is an IPS correspondent