Third Meeting - July, 27, 2009

Third MILAGRO-Mex Meeting: Due to the outbreak of H1N1 flu, the third meeting was postponed until July 27, 2009. It was hosted by Secretary Martha Delgado and Victor Hugo Paramo at Quinta Coronada in Chapultepec Park. The theme of the workshop was ÒAtmospheric chemistry, health and ecological studies of Mexico City and the surrounding areasÓ Ð attended by about 60 people. The presentations covered different aspects of the atmospheric science of air pollutants and their impacts, which included: Air quality trends / emissions inventory (Armando Retama / Jorge Sarmiento, GDF-SMA); Meteorology (Ernesto Caetano, UNAM); Emissions measurements from MILAGRO Campaign (Miguel Zavala, MCE2); Urban and regional photochemistry/air quality modeling (Agustin Garc’a, UNAM); Tenango del Aire / RO2 radical measurement (Alejandro Torres, UNAM); Biomonitoring studies in the Valley of Mexico (Ma de Lourdes de la Isla de Bauer, Colpos); Air quality study in the State of Morelos (Dara Salcedo, UAEM); PM composition and source apportionment (Violeta Mugica, UAM-A); Sources of VOC and PM in Mexico City (Elizabeth Vega/Gabriela Sanchez, IMP); Health effects of air pollution in Mexico City and needs for epidemiological studies (Margarita Castillejos, UAM-X); Inflammation markers (citokines) and air pollutants (Horacio Tovalin, UNAM); Evaluation of the potential impact of pollution on the ecosystem of the National Park Izta-Popo Zoquiapan (Carlos Ochoa, UNAM). Finally, open discussion on Emissions,- Meteorology, transport and chemistry and Control strategies

Luisa Molina concluded the session by commenting that the recent field studies, supported by ambient monitoring network and the emissions inventories from the local authorities, have provided extremely rich data sets, especially the 2006 MILAGRO Campaign. While full use of data will take several years of collaborative work, many important features have already been identified, as evidenced from the presentations at the meeting and 100 articles published in the Special Issue on Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics and other peer-reviewed journals. The MILAGRO participants are continued to collaborate on data analysis and interpretation, particularly the integration of ground based, aircraft and satellite data. Further, it is important to integrate air pollution with climate change, and to improve our understanding of the health and ecological impacts. She also mentioned a new UNEP assessment on black carbon and tropospheric ozone, substances that are short-lived radiative forcing agents that also cause significant adverse health impacts as air pollutants.

Secretary Martha Delgado joined the open discussion and closed the session after addressing the participants.