Pollution in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Puerto Vallarta not only has bad air pollution but often has raw sewage running in the streets, particularly in the Romantic Zone. It only takes a moment for flies who have landed in this sewage to eat it to contaminate your food with up to ten pathogens that can be fatal. This would never be associated with the sewage but would in fact be blamed on the food.

A big thank you to all the people leaving a comment! I have been coming to PV for some twenty years and this year is by far the worst one for breathing. I thought it was just me. A few weeks after arriving I couldn’t breathe especially at night. Sinus and chest infection. After three and a half months and multiple medications i still are not free of the problem. Instead of solving problems like air pollution water pollution etc. our “esteemed “ Puerto Vallarta mayor is urging the press not to report on problems like this because it’s bad for touristm! The implementation of the new buses is a huge improvement but it’s not enough.
I hate to give up our PV vacation but something has to give!

I'm coming up on 1 year of living in Vallarta, but I came here to live. I've had a few skin disorders mainly on my feet, but they all heal eventually some requiring topical creams. I'm not convinced this is from pollution. I think with all the buses that run they would switch those from diesel to natural gas and my guess is that will probably be coming. My only suggestion is no matter where you are staying if there is a trash receptacle next to the toilet help and discard the used hygiene paper there. This will help preserve one of your favorite places to visit (or live).

We having been coming to Puerto Vallarta on winter holidays for 8 years now. The air pollution has been getting progressively worse. During February 2017 my allergies and asthma were both acting up, but controlled with medications. February 2018 and my breathing was affected right away on arrival. After five days I had to go to the CMQ Hospital as I could not stop coughing and I was having serious problems breathing. I was put on oxygen and ventillun treatments and then after four hours released. I was ble to finish out our two week holiday, but had to keep our condo closed up from early evening til late in the morning. There is smoke in the air every morning and the air pollution from all the old diesel busses makes breathing difficult. After returning home to Canada after a few days my breathing returned to normal. Next winter we will have to find a new winter vacation destination.

It's too bad. We just returned from PV and as we flew in I saw 3 huge trash fires, so was not surprised to awaken to a nasty smog bank crawling across the bay towards the ocean at Nuevo Vallarta. Yep, reminded me of the view from the Pasadena freeway - when I was a girl you could actually see the Pacific from up there - not any more. Back to PV - the place is beautiful and we were generally treated well, but between the car noise and the smog, I don't think I'm going back. Such a opportunity for Mexico to install solar panels, introduce some closed system energy producing trash burners, and show the rest of the world how it is done. Apparently California hasn't been able to figure out how to do this - even with brains and money (more like greed "Trumps" common sense). It will require a tax base. Those people serving your drinks and cleaning your room are getting a $1-2 an hour. No taxes coming from those guys is going to get the job done. Are the tourists willing to help pay for that through increased prices? How do the profits of these big international hotels chains fall into this? Their business is heavily contributing to the issue, shouldn't they be part of the solution? Very sad - ignorance and bullying are the order for humanity. Are we like yeast? Doomed to die in our own effluent?

We are staying in Nuevo Vallarta now for the second winter and we are thinking twice about returning because of the air pollution! Such a beautiful place but we now have to close all doors and windows by 8pm and keep them clos d till 8 am. There is garbage being burned and we can see the plumes of smoke from our condo balcony. It is so smoky at times that we cannot see the beautiful Sierra Madre Occidental mountains! What a shame. Some mornings we cannot even see the ocean and our condo is right on the beach. The smoke stinks and it catches in our air passages. We agree with the other people commenting here that the vehicle pollutions is bad in Puerto Vallarta but out here in Nuevo the incinerators are causing most of the problem.