Prevention Is the Way to Avoid Falling Into Environmental "Alert Fatigue"

Abstract

Poor air quality in Colombian cities was, until a few months ago, the central topic on newscasts, political agendas, citizen debates, and conversations in barbershops and salons. However, as happens with cyclical, trending topics, we have already stopped hearing in the media that Colombian cities' air quality has extremely high levels of particulate matter (PM), that citizens' health is being affected, that local governments take mitigating measures during emergencies, and that we should transition to more sustainable technologies that pollute the local atmosphere less, "like other cities around the world."