Breathe
By Fátima Masse
The Monterrey Metropolitan Area started this year 2024 with environmental alerts and citizen marches to demand the closure of the Cadereyta refinery, considered the main source of air pollution.
What is happening today in Monterrey is similar to what happened in the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico (ZMVM) 35 years ago. This was a time when the city made international headlines as one of the most polluted cities in the world. Therefore, his experience could provide lessons for Nuevo León, starting with the fact that this problem requires comprehensive attention from federal, state and municipal authorities. It also requires leaving politics aside, because people's lives and the local economy are at stake.
Monterrey's air pollution is not a new problem. In 2013, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) calculated the costs of poor air quality in 34 cities. It found that the Sultana del Norte was the second city in the country with the most consultations and hospital discharges attributable to particulate pollution and the third with the most deaths. A decade later, the situation continues and it seems that it will only be solved if the refinery disappears. Will it be?
