Air quality improves in São Paulo, but pollution remains high

Air quality, as measured by fine particle pollution, improved in the city of São Paulo — the most populated in South America — over the past two decades. Air pollution, however, remains double the levels considered safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Per data from IEMA, the Energy and Environment Institute, São Paulo recorded 30 micrograms per cubic meter, on average, last year (down from 58 in 2003). Anything above 15 micrograms per cubic meter is considered unsafe.

Earlier this week, health officials in the state of São Paulo warned of a rise in asthma-related cases. During Q1 2023, hospitalizations went up by 51 percent and walk-ins rose by 20 percent. Poor air quality is linked to nearly 2,100 excess deaths across Brazil annually, by one estimate.

The air quality problem in Latin America is linked to a recent rise in forest fires, experts say. “Air quality [issues] do not respect territorial limits; it has no borders,” Daniela García, of the Inter-American Association for Environmental Defense, said in May of this year.

IEMA also denounced high pollution levels in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area. In a report published on Tuesday, it flagged that fine particle pollution levels are currently five times the safe limits as set by the WHO.

“It is alarming that concentrations of pollutants in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte have been so high and for so long, with no indication of improvement over two decades,” said David Tsai, a project manager at IEMA and one of the authors of the study.

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