Industria, emisiones gaseosas y gestión ambiental urbana. Diagnóstico de las condiciones operativas de las fundiciones en Tandil, Argentina Industrial activity, gas emissions and environmental urban management. Operative condition's diagnostic of smelting activities in Tandil, Argentina.

Amongst urban environmental problems, those associated to industry are of particular interest in environmental management. Tandil, a city in Argentina, owes its economic and urban growth to metalworking activity, especially to smelting. Despite the crisis in the sector, activity continues to be the axis of local economic and urban growth. The present research characterizes, in production, operative and environmental terms, local smelting industries and assesses operative conditions of gas emissions management during 2010. There were analyzed 25 industries over 30. The sample was representative of five productive processes: aluminum (Al), aluminum/iron (Al Fe), aluminum/bronze (Al Cu+Sn), aluminum/ iron/bronze (Al Fe Cu+Sn), iron (Fe). The variables analyzed were: primary fusion mater, oven used and industry size. To obtain production data we applied structured interviews, and for industry sizes we used surveys. It was possible to describe the productive prospect of the sector at a local level: for most industries the destination of their production is automotive sector. Taking into account the relation between the size and the type of industry, the aluminum smelting companies are small. Regarding iron industries, all three company sizes are present in the sample and exist a medium size industry that occupies between 51 and 230 employees. The operative conditions and their compliance with current legislation regarding control of gas emissions require to identify monitoring indicators for the melting stage that allow to know precisely the resulting contaminants and their environmental effects.