The Public Prosecutor's Office recommends the immediate start of vehicle inspections.
The In-Use Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program (I/M) was planned for 2012; the target is 70.753 diesel vehicles.
The Public Prosecutor's Office of the Federal District and Territories (MPDFT), through the 3rd Public Prosecutor's Office for the Defense of the Environment and Cultural Heritage (Prodema), recommended to the Secretariat of Environment and Water Resources (Semarh) the immediate implementation of the vehicle inspection program phase planned for 2012. According to the model proposed by Semarh, the inspection initially targets the 70.753 diesel vehicles, which represent 6% of the fleet in circulation in the Federal District.
The Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program (I/M) is one of the instruments of the Vehicle Pollution Control Program (PCPV), both provided for in resolutions of the National Environment Council (Conama) - which established the national programs for Air Quality Control (Pronar) and Air Pollution Control by Motor Vehicles (Proconve) - and is intended to keep emissions of noise, gases and polluting particles from motor vehicles at permitted levels.
In the Federal District, the Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program (I/M) was established by District Law No. 3.460, of October 14, 2004. The deadline for its implementation, according to Conama Resolutions 418/2009 and 426/2010, expired yesterday, April 25, 2012. However, the pre-implementation phase of the I/M-DF Program has not even begun, a fact that motivated the issuance of the recommendation to Semarh, considering the importance of controlling vehicular pollution for public health.
Motor vehicles generate 95% of air pollution in large urban centers. According to the coordinator of the Experimental Air Pollution Laboratory at the USP Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Paulo Saldiva, approximately 4.000 people die in the city of São Paulo every year as a consequence of air pollution, which causes more deaths than AIDS and tuberculosis combined. A study conducted in 2009 in Rio Grande do Sul estimated the costs associated with respiratory diseases linked to air pollution at R$ 14.859.933,14.
According to Public Prosecutor Marta Eliana de Oliveira, pollution generated by vehicles in the Federal District is a matter of utmost importance, requiring the urgent implementation of public policies for control and prevention. "We are experiencing an intense dry season, during which the presence of particulate matter in the air intensifies and increases cases of respiratory illnesses, which mainly affect children," she explained.
The Federal District has one vehicle for every two inhabitants - there are 2.562.963 inhabitants (IBGE, 2010) and 1.263.154 motor vehicles (DETRAN, 2011) - a fact that confirms the pressing need for this large fleet to have its emissions inspected, as a way to guarantee the quality of the air we breathe.
With information from the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Federal District and Territories.