September 5, 2008 Tracking Down the Menace in Mexico City Smog
Contact: Paul Preuss, (510) 486-6249 BERKELEY, CA – A new report
by scientists who are part of the international MILAGRO Campaign
indicates that some of the most harmful air pollution in Mexico
City may not come from motor vehicles but instead originates
with industrial sources – and that the culprit may be garbage
incineration. The MILAGRO Campaign (Megacity Initiative: Local
and Global Research Observations) monitored air quality in the
Mexico City Metropolitan Area throughout the month of March,
2006. Headed by the Molina Center for Energy and the Environment
in La Jolla, California, MILAGRO – the acronym means "miracle"
in Spanish – is an international scientific collaboration
supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science
Foundation, NASA, and other agencies in the U.S., Mexico, and
Europe. Five DOE labs contributed to the study, including
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Beamline 11.0.2 at
Berkeley Lab's Advanced Ligh