Mexico City: the World's Most Polluted City

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Mexico City: The World’s Most Polluted City Urban Expansion of the Mexico City Metropolitan Areas, 1950-2005 Mexico City is known to be the one of the largest megacities in the world with a population of over 20 million people and is quickly growing into the largest urbanized area in the world. Mexico City became the primary population center of Mexico because of its industrialization and large consumer market attracting migrants from rural areas. With the rapid growth rate Mexico City has experienced a number of complications such as air pollution, water sanitization problems, and lack of much needed transportation in urban areas. Mexico City has faced some tough climate situations in their history. The city often suffers from pollution emergencies that sometimes last a week in length. When this happens, thousands of cars are pulled off the road and factories are ordered to work at 30% normal capacity. People are told to remain indoors and stop activities such as exercising or smoking. These emergencies are caused by clear dry spells that lock air in and cause forest fires. It is not uncommon for elementary schools to cancel recess and keep children indoors when there are possible chemicals in the air that can harm them. Elementary school teachers report that when children paint pictures in class, they always use colors like grey, black or brown instead of blue when painting the sky. This is how the children portray the sky should look like because that is what they are used to seeing. Children often complain of headache, and fatigue, sore eyes, scorched throats and difficulty breathing and these are just the most common problems. Asthma and respiratory problems are also familiar and some people are more affected than others. The elderly, children and people who already suffer from illness are at an even greater risk. Even a common cold can double in

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