Air quality in Sabaneta

Does Sabaneta suffer from high levels of air pollution?

Sabaneta is a municipality of Colombia, located in the Aburrá Valley of the Antioquia department. According to a census which was conducted in 2012, Sabaneta had an estimated population of approximately 50,000 people.

At the beginning of September 2021, Sabaneta was experiencing a period of “Moderate” air quality with a US AQI figure of 55. This United States Air Quality Index figure is calculated by measuring the levels of six of the most commonly found air pollutants. Which are usually nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide and both sizes of particulate matter, which are PM2.5 and PM10. It is then used as a metric when comparing air pollution in other cities. Sometimes records are non-existent for all six pollutants so the level is calculated by using what figures are available. For Sabaneta, the only recorded figure was that for PM2.5 which was recorded as being 14.2 µg/m³. This level is almost one and a half times higher than the recommended level of 10 µg/m³ which is the suggested maximum figure by the World Health Organisation (WHO), although no amount of air pollution is considered to be safe.

Although this level is not as high as in some cities, the given advice would be to stay inside and close all windows and doors to prevent more polluted air from entering. Those who know they are sensitive to polluted air should avoid venturing outside until the air quality improves. The table published at the top of this page may help with that decision or there is an app that can be freely downloaded to any mobile device which will show the state of the air in real-time.

Does the level of air pollution vary much throughout the year in Sabaneta?

Having consulted the figures for 2020 which were published by IQAir.com, it can readily be seen that the month with the worst air quality was March when the reading of 43.7 µg/m³ would classify it as being “Unhealthy for sensitive groups” with a figure between 35.5 and 55.4 µg/m³. For the remaining 11 months, the air in Sabaneta was classed as being “Moderate” with figures between 12.1 and 35.4 µg/m³.The month that provided the best air quality was May with a reading of 12.6 µg/m³.

Records of air pollution figures were first kept in 2019 when the annual average was seen to be 22.4 µg/m³. The following year showed an improvement with a figure of 18.5 µg/m³. This latest figure could be skewed because of the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to various periods of “lockdown”, many vehicles were no longer used on a daily basis as their drivers were not required to drive to the office. This cut a considerable amount of pollution from the air. Some factories and small production units were also temporarily closed so their emissions were no longer present in the atmosphere.

What are the main causes of air pollution in Sabaneta?

More than 3 million people have established their place of residence along the Valley that crosses the Medellín River in an environment that presents special characteristics. Urban expansion has been erasing the boundaries between the 10 municipalities that make up the Metropolitan Area and therefore the population has concentrated in the limited space of its longitudinal geographic area. The high mountain ranges that surround the valley and the regime of low speed winds that come from the north allow the generation of a relatively stable and pleasant microclimate at average temperatures around 22°C.

Industrial development encourages a greater concentration of people around their place of employment and increases the transport requirements of citizens to and from their places of residence, for this reason more than 500 thousand motor vehicles circulate regularly in the metropolitan area. This places it in a densely populated metropolitan locality, with an effervescent industrial, commercial, social and service activity, occupying a geographically narrow habitat and surrounded by a semi-captive atmospheric volume. Industrial and transportation activities throw pollutants into the atmosphere such as particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone and others.

What can be done to improve the air quality in Sabaneta?

12 new automatic stations have been installed to monitor levels of PM2.5, which are located in different residential points of Medellín, Barbosa, Copacabana, Bello, La Estrella, Envigado and Sabaneta, 20 monitoring points for this pollutant are now installed in the metropolitan territory. All these stations provide data to evaluate the real impact that PM2.5 has on the health of the population, to strengthen research related to the knowledge of the conditions that generate critical episodes, and to enrich the management carried out by the Metropolitan Area of Valle de Boring and the mayors in terms of air quality.

What are the detrimental effects of air pollution in Sabaneta on our health?

The pollutant that has been and continues to be of greatest national concern is particulate matter or PM. It is neither a solid nor a gas, but an aerosol product of the mixture of erosion debris, soil particles, heavy metals and carbon that cannot be burned, amongst others.

An area that worries environmentalists is the inescapable growth of the automobile fleet. From 2002 to 2012, the vehicle fleet in the city had grown about 15 times, while its roads had only grown 1 per cent. People constantly complain about public transport buses as severe pollutants, and that is that mobile sources generate 81 per cent of the pollution in Antioquia.

Air pollution affects different groups of people in different ways. 'The most serious effects occur in people who are already sick. In addition, the most vulnerable groups, such as children, the elderly and low-income families with limited access to medical care, are more susceptible to the harmful effects of this phenomenon.

Short and long-term exposure produces health effects. For example, people with asthma are at higher risk of having an asthma attack on days when ground-level ozone concentrations are highest, while people exposed for several years to high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) they have a greater risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases.

If the concentration is very high, although it is not usually frequent, it affects our health in a way that causes bronchial irritation. Pollutants are complex, they do not act in isolation, and they can interact with each other or they can cause 'secondary pollutants', as is the case of ozone, a relatively important toxin.