Mexico City’s Clean-Air Ploy: Bathhouse Ban

The clouds of black smoke billowing from this capital’s 300 public bathhouses disappeared Tuesday--as they will every Tuesday for the next three months--as industrial polluters joined a controversial program to help clean up the air.

Bathhouses--notorious polluters because of their fuel-oil-burning boilers--agreed Monday to become the first sector to participate in a “One Day Without Industry” program. Tuesday will be their day to close.

By the end of October, when the program ends, bathhouses are supposed to have installed antipollution equipment that is expected to reduce emissions 10%, city officials said.

Officials said they are encouraging other industries to participate in similar one-day-a-week closures. They would not specify which industries.

Environmentalists reacted with skepticism to the announcement, calling it a response to political pressure rather than a real solution to industrial pollution problems.

“They are just doing this because the ecology movement has been calling attention to industrial pollution,” said Jorge Legorreta of Centro de Ecodesarrollo, an environmental research firm. “Making these small businesses close is just a way to take pressure off major industries.”

Industry is the source of 15% to 25% of Mexico City’s air pollution, depending on which study is consulted. However, industry is responsible for 97% of sulfur-dioxide emissions, pollution that comes from burning the country’s sulfur-laden fuel oil.

Bathhouses burn fuel oil to heat water for steam rooms, saunas and showers. However, other industries also use fuel oil, and it is not known exactly how big a part of the problem bathhouses are.

The “One Day Without Industry” program will complement the nine-month-old “One Day Without a Car” program. Motorists are assigned a weekday, based on the last digit of their automobile license plate, when they may not drive.

The auto program was devised to lower pollution levels during the winter, when thermal inversions make them especially high. The city’s federally appointed mayor has periodically extended the program, most recently over the objections of the city council.