Air Quality Reference Laboratory, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA)

In Bolivia, fine particulate matter (PM2.5)—the pollutant most strongly linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease—has never been systematically measured nor formally regulated. With this award, this project, led by the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), will deploy a network of specific air quality monitors across six Bolivian capital cities, generating the country’s first continuous, sub-daily PM2.5 dataset. The data will be shared openly in near real-time. Building on this evidence, the team will work with national health and environmental institutions to advance a PM2.5 standard within the national air quality regulatory framework.

During the course of the project, we expect to generate the first continuous, multi-city, and openly accessible PM2.5 dataset in Bolivia. This need became evident, for example, in 2024, when burning and land-clearing (chaqueo) practices triggered wildfires of historic magnitude—the most extensive ever recorded in the country—which blanketed the country’s major cities in smoke, affecting residents for weeks, without consolidated, continuous PM2.5 data available to quantify the actual exposure. The data generated by the project will support the incorporation of PM2.5 into the national regulatory framework.

Prof. Marcelo Gorritty Portillo, Research professor, Air Quality Reference Laboratory, Institute for Research and Development of Chemical Processes (IIDEPROQ-UMSA)