The protest lasted 15 minutes before police removed the masks from the statues of Rita Perez de Moreno, Rafael Preciado Hernandez and Jose Clemente Orozco.
A World Health Organization report states that outdoor air pollution causes some 14,700 deaths in Mexico each year, representatives of GDL en Bici and Femibici told the assembled crowd.
“Cyclists and pedestrians suffer the consequences of air contamination most of all,” said Margarita Gutierrez in justifying the protest.In Mexico City, activists delivered a letter to the Federal Commission Against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) demanding that norms regarding levels of ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere be brought up to date. These haven’t changed since 1994, said the activists. In the case of sulfur dioxide, the acceptable level is 1,300 percent lower than the current WHO global guideline, they said.
The demonstration was carried out simultaneously in 14 Mexican cities.
The WHO estimates that urban outdoor air pollution causes 1.3 million deaths worldwide each year. It recommends targets for air quality at which the health risks are significantly reduced. These indicate that by reducing particulate matter pollution from 70 to 20 micrograms per cubic meter, air quality related deaths can be reduced by around 15 percent.