- '...6,000 TONS of particulates, chemicals and other pollutants
are emitted DAILY by metropolitan Manila's two to three million vehicles,
hundreds of factories, and households.'
-
- The indidence of respiratory tract infections (RTIs)
is still increasing. If one looks at the records in many hospital ERs (emergency
rooms) in Metro Manila, RTI is one of the leading causes for hospital admissions.
If you blame it on the changing weather or the high pollen count this time
of year, you're probably barking up the wrong tree. Stand at any intersection
of Edsa and you'll know the answer.
-
- Without realizing its real and imminent dangers, many
residents in Metro Manila and other key cities including Baguio, which
was previously thought to be a pristine city with fresh air, are making
a difficult decision to stay. Many are not aware that unless something
is done about the pollution problem, many parts of these cities will no
longer be fit for human habitation in a decade or two.
-
- The warning signs are familiar to all those who live
in cities where the air is polluted: aching backs, wheezing, coughing,
headache, dizziness and a myriad of other symptoms. Millions of Metro Manila
residents breathe dirty air every day of the year.
-
- Health concerns (asthma, other lung infections, heart
problems, cancers, central nervous system damage and lowered IQs) increasingly
affect people from all walks of life. It is a growing health hazard that
has reached monstrous proportions. It is a true epidemic like no other
plague we've seen before. And no community within the metropolis is immune
from the growing threat of Metro Manila's degraded air quality.
-
- Dirty City
-
- World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Environment
Program (Unep) studies show that Metro Manila's air shed is one of the
five dirtiest and most polluted in the world, topped only by the metropolitan
areas of Mexico City, Shanghai and New Delhi.
-
- Reports indicate that 6,000 tons of particulates, chemicals
and other pollutants are emitted daily by Metro Manila's two to three million
vehicles, hundreds of factories, and households.
-
- In March 1999, the British Medical Journal quoted Dr.
Miguel Celdran, a pediatrician at the Makati Medical Center, who said:
"About 90 percent of my patients have respiratory illness, and we're
seeing babies as young as two months suffering from asthma. Twenty years
ago, this was unheard of."
-
- A survey by the Philippine Pediatric Society, which asked
doctors to describe the most common illnesses that they treat, received
the same response in every case: diseases of the upper respiratory tract.
-
- Urine samples from children living and begging on the
polluted streets showed that at least 7 percent had high lead concentrations.
-
- Increased Traffic
-
- In 1997, a technical study financed by the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) showed that air pollution in Metro Manila had reached critical
proportions. The reasons are a 10 percent annual growth rate in the vehicle
fleet, increased traffic, poor traffic planning that reduced speeds and
escalated commuting times, and poorly tuned motors that ran unnecessary
extra hours, in effect multiplying the pollutants being released into the
air.
-
- Other sources of air pollution include power plants,
industries, restaurants and dry cleaning establishments.
-
- Metro Manila's air quality crisis grows in scale daily.
Vehicle densities, for instance, have increased from 675,310 in 1990, to
1.2 million in 1998, to over 2 million in 2001. Vehicle density in Metro
Manila has gone from 1,600 per km2 in 1995 to 3,144 per km2 in 2000, and
at an accelerating rate of growth. There is a direct correlation between
the number of cars on the road and the amount of pollution in the air.
-
- There are other sources of pollutants: power plants,
dust from continuous street diggings, solvent evaporation, and ozone.
-
- Despite the completion of the second elevated light rail
system, there has been little effort to reduce the 500 or so bus companies
operating some 5,000 plus diesel-spewing buses on Metro Manila's roadways
or to relocate any of the bus terminals that clog Edsa.
-
- And with any level of economic growth-welcome news for
sure-will come increased transport demands in the city.
-
- Published on page B11 of the March 12, 2005 issue of
the Philippine Daily Inquirer
- First of two parts
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