Severe air pollution plagues Chilean cities Cold winter
conditions and the lack of wind are exacerbating air-quality
problems in Santiago and Chillán; pollution in both cities has
reached extreme levels. Chillán, a city south of Santiago known
for its skiing and thermal baths, now ranks as the fourth most
contaminated city in Chile (behind Santiago, Temuco, and
Concepción). A 2004 study by the University of Concepción
determined air pollution levels in Chillán at 170 milligrams of
contaminated material per cubic meter, 20 milligrams over the
legal limit. As in Temuco, the main cause of air pollution in
Chillán is the use of wood-burning stoves: about 62% of all
households in Chillán use firewood as their main source of
heating. Many people do not use environmentally friendly
firewood, preferring less expensive, less thoroughly burnable
wood. Many people also wet their firewood before burning it,
believing that this will generate more warmth, though it
actually just causes more pollution. In Santiago, an envir