La Paz suffers one of the worst smoke pollution crises from fires

Peace. The Bolivian city of La Paz, the seat of the Bolivian government located in the western region of the country, has been experiencing one of the worst air pollution crises in its history since the beginning of the month due to forest fires, said on Thursday the head of the Environmental Services Unit of La Paz, Gabriela Rivera.

The official from the agency belonging to the Municipal Secretariat for Environmental Management said that for several consecutive days, the Air Quality Index (AQI) has exceeded 200 micrograms per cubic meter of particles in the city.

“We are in the ninth day of ‘very bad’ air quality, something unprecedented in the city,” said Rivera, emphasizing that September 5 was “the worst day” when the AQI reached 225 micrograms.

Air quality between 0 and 50 micrograms per cubic meter is considered “good”; between 51 and 100 “fair”; between 101 and 150 “poor”; between 151 and 300 “very poor” and more than 300 is considered “extremely poor,” according to the ICA classification.

According to the report, the air in the city of La Paz has been filled with toxic particles in recent days due to forest fires in the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando, a situation that is compounded by the fires in Brazil.

Rivera said that the accumulation of smoke, combined with the absence of rain and the lack of wind to help disperse the pollutants, drastically worsened the air quality in La Paz, with pollution levels reaching levels never seen before.

Starting on September 2, the ICA in the city began to rise above 130 micrograms, which already indicated a worrying situation in the atmosphere, but by September 4, the levels exceeded 150 micrograms, that is, a crisis scenario.

According to Rivera, although there were slight decreases such as those recorded on the 9th and 10th of this month with levels between 196 and 194, the situation is still serious, due to the fact that the fires in the northern regions rekindled the smoke, which causes La Paz to remain immersed in a toxic cloud that puts the health of its inhabitants at risk.

In-person educational activities were suspended in the city, with authorities temporarily implementing virtual learning in schools and universities.

The measure seeks to minimize students’ exposure to pollution, while authorities monitor the environmental situation.