Panama City Chokes on Its Air

Residents of Panama City must wait till 2002 to find relief from the city's poor air quality. That's when a law's prohibiting the use of leaded gasoline takes effect. A Panama University researcher has said that, were leaded gasoline prohibited from use by the 90 percent of the motor vehicles that now run on the fuel, air contamination in the capital would drop 50 percent. Panama, however, reportedly lacks the technical capacity to produce sufficient stores of unleaded gasoline. The country, therefore, remains Central America's lone nation permitting leaded gasoline.

University of Panama experts also blame the lead-laden air in Panama City on the city's growing number of cars--up 20 percent since 1992--and lack of adequate roads to keep traffic flowing.

According to data from the university's Specialized Analysis Institute, lead contamination of the capital city's air averages 1.4 micrograms per cubic meter. This figure exceeds the maximum limits of one microgram established by the World Health Organization.

The heavy metal particles and other dust fumes--as well as carbon monoxide--from traffic are said to cause most of the respiratory diseases suffered by the city's infant population. (Around 60 percent of the 300 cases entering the children's hospital in the capital each day are respiratory related.)