In Bogotá, Not All Smoke Is Equal

A bus and a cigarrette fume off. Not all smoke is treated equal, but some smoke gets off scot-free. 

Not all smoke is created equal: some kinds of smoke are more carcinogenic, others cause emphysema, asthma, allergies, heart disease, or all of these.

A tourist covers her mouth on Seventh Ave. 

But every kind of smoke is bad for us. In recent years, Bogotá and Colombia have moved to restrict smoking and the impacts of tobacco smoke on non-smokers. So why do authorities seem to ignore other sources of air pollution, such as vehicles and industry?

After all, while cigarrettes generate cubic centimeters of smoke, vehicles and factories belch out cubic meters of it.

What if we labeled other air polluters the same way we do cigarrette packs?

Related posts:


A Toxic Assault on Bogotá's Breathers

Pollution: We see it, but they don't.

Fighting for the Right to Pollute.

And check out our video, in Spanish, denouncing Bogotá's air pollution. (Nuestro video sobre contaminacion del aire en Bogotá)

A skull graces this smokestack in Palo Quemao to show what it does to its neighbors. 

This Transmilenio bus on the 'Eje Ambiental needs an image of the diseased lungs it produces. 

How many people has this belching bus helped send to sickbeds?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours