On Monday “we had a peak of dioxide of sulfur which exceeded five times the hourly norm at 02:00 in the morning. Quintero and Puchuncaví are communes (municipalities) that have tolerated this for decades, but they have to come to an end,” said Rubén Gutiérrez, mayor of the town of Quintero, with more than 31,000 inhabitants, located in the region of Valparaiso (120 km west of Santiago).
“We had a general affectation of municipal and subsidized schools, where more than 50 children and more than 25 education assistants were affected by the effects of gases toxic“, indicated a note from the municipality of Quintero.
Health authorities in the Valparaíso region reported that all cases presented symptoms associated with headache, itchy eyes and throat, as well as nausea. They were kept under observation and later released.
The presidential delegate in Valparaíso, Sofía González, declared an environmental emergency in these two locations, where classes were suspended in public and private schools, all physical activity and heating sources were prohibited, at a time when the central zone of Chile is facing an autumn of very low temperatures.
Pollution has grown in the area since, in 1958, the Chilean government decided to relegate artisanal fishing and agriculture to convert this place into an industrial pole that today houses four coal-fired thermoelectric plants and crude oil and copper refineries.
The more than 50,000 inhabitants of both towns breathe gases on a daily basis that are emitted by some 15 polluting sources.
The government of the president Gabriel borik announced a meeting with the authorities of the affected localities, while the governor of Valparaíso, Rodrigo Mundaca, a well-known environmentalist, maintained that “responsibilities must be cleared up because polluting cannot be free and mortgaging the lives of children cannot be be free.”
Source: Ambito
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