--- title: Santiago Air Pollution: Environmental Emergency Declared in Chile description: About 40% of the country's 1.7 million automobiles must be off the road. canonical: https://time.com/3930737/santiago-air-pollution-emergency/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-23T02:14:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:25:17.726Z article:section: World og:title: Chile Declares First Environmental Emergency Since 1999 Over Air Pollution og:description: About 40% of the country's 1.7 million automobiles must be off the road og:url: https://time.com/3930737/santiago-air-pollution-emergency/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4449216a862c4c92/698855aaf887dc981ce91098/chile-air-pollution.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Smog shrouds Chile's capital Santiago og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chile Declares First Environmental Emergency Since 1999 Over Air Pollution twitter:description: About 40% of the country's 1.7 million automobiles must be off the road twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4449216a862c4c92/698855aaf887dc981ce91098/chile-air-pollution.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chile Declares First Environmental Emergency Since 1999 Over Air Pollution  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 23, 2015 2:14 AM CUT  Smog shrouds Chile's capital Santiago, June 22, 2015. Smog shrouds Chile's capital Santiago, June 22, 2015.Ueslei Marcelino—Reuters  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 23, 2015 2:14 AM CUT Air pollution in Santiago is so bad that Chile declared a state of [environmental emergency](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/22/chile-pollution-idUSL1N0Z800X20150622 "undefined") on Monday for the capital and the surrounding metropolitan area. The decision forces around 40% of the country’s 1.7 million automobiles off the road, Reuters reports, and more than 900 factories must also cease operations. Chile’s first environmental emergency since 1999 is expected to last for 24 hours but can be extended if conditions don’t improve. “We’re currently facing unusual conditions, with one of the driest Junes in over 40 years as well as really bad air circulation conditions in the Santiago valley in recent days, which boosts the concentration of contamination,” Chile’s Environment Ministry said in a statement. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/22/chile-pollution-idUSL1N0Z800X20150622 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3930737/santiago-air-pollution-emergency/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3930737/santiago-air-pollution-emergency/"},"headline":"Chile Declares First Environmental Emergency Since 1999 Over Air Pollution","datePublished":"2015-06-23T02:14:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:25:17.726Z","description":"About 40% of the country's 1.7 million automobiles must be off the road","url":"https://time.com/3930737/santiago-air-pollution-emergency/","keywords":["Chile","Environment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4449216a862c4c92/698855aaf887dc981ce91098/chile-air-pollution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4449216a862c4c92/698855aaf887dc981ce91098/chile-air-pollution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Smog shrouds Chile's capital Santiago","caption":"Smog shrouds Chile's capital Santiago, June 22, 2015.","creditText":"Ueslei Marcelino—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/chile/","name":"Chile"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3930737/santiago-air-pollution-emergency/","name":"Chile Declares First Environmental Emergency Since 1999 Over Air Pollution"}}]}] ```