74 Chinese cities release real-time PM2.5 data

[Fu Lai]

BEIJING - Starting Tuesday, real-time air quality monitoring data on PM2.5 intensity in China's 74 major cities is available at the website of http://www.cnemc.cn.

 

The move is considered a big improvement in air quality monitoring, made at the strong request of the public.

 

Information on particulate matter in China used to be limited to PM10, or particulate matter 10 microns or less in diameter.

There has been public demand in recent years for data on PM2.5, a gauge that monitors fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less. It is considered to be more hazardous to people's health.

 

A total of 496 monitoring sites have been set up in the 74 cities.

 

According to data released by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center, overall air quality of Beijing at 4 pm Tuesday ranked "level II" or "fairly good", with an average air quality indices (AQI) reading of 67.

 

The PM2.5 pollution reading in southwest Beijing's Fengtai district and southern suburb Daxing district were marked at 111 and 176 respectively, or "slight pollution" and "medium pollution."

 

Data was collected from more than 20 monitoring sites across the capital city and will be updated every 15-40 minutes.

PM2.5 intensity and other air quality information in these 74 cities can also be available through mobile phones.

 

China is proceeding with its urban air quality monitoring program in stages and aims to make it cover all prefecture-level cities by 2016. (Xinhua)

 

Search by city etc. http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.cnemc.cn/citystatus/airMap.jsp&usg=ALkJrhjKthpntTquyTaEUbVivekahJX1Wg

 

My city of Wuhan is NOT available.

[Fu Lai]

Found this http://re.taobao.com/search?spm=a230r.1.0.609.phx0IN&catid=&catname=&keyword=Vog+Mask&scat=&scatid=&propertyid=&property=&frcatid=&refpid=420435_1006&isinner=0 at taobao

Edited January 12, 2013 by Fu Lai (see edit history)

[Doug]

Can't read

[Fu Lai]

Can't read

Translate is built into most browsers (chrome at least) or paste the url into http://translate.google.com or use the translate add-on for Firefox

Edited January 12, 2013 by Fu Lai (see edit history)

[Guest ExChinaExpat]

Can't read

Too much pollution to see it. Sometimes the air clears up after it rains.

[Fu Lai]

 

Can't read

Too much pollution to see it. Sometimes the air clears up after it rains.

Is the microparticle pollution from China or the USA? They both suffer pretty equally from it.

[Fu Lai]

 

 

Healthy debate over air

Updated: 2013-01-14 00:57

( China Daily)

Record pollution levels hit transport as face mask sales surge, report Wu Wencong, Tang Yue and Cui Jia.

For many years, Peking Duck and Peking Opera were probably the two most famous items named after the capital.

However, they now face a strong challenge. The heavy smog and haze that enveloped the city on the weekend — pushing the pollution index to a record high — has seen "Beijing Cough", a term coined by the city's expat community, becoming increasingly popular with local media and Chinese citizens.

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20130113/180373d28c10125d2b224b.jpg

 

The capital's Third Ring Road is shrouded in haze on Saturday as the city's air pollution reached hazardous levels. [Agencies]

 

Saturday saw the density of PM2.5 — air particles smaller than 2.5 microns and able to enter the lungs and even the blood stream — climb higher than 900 micrograms per cubic meter in several districts in the capital, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center. That's the highest level recorded since Beijing began publishing the data in early 2012.

The World Health Organization considers the safe daily level to be 25 micrograms per cubic meter.

 

However, the problem has now become a national phenomenon, rather than one unique to Beijing. On Saturday, levels of PM2.5 passed 300 micrograms per cubic meter in 33 of the 74 cities with systems equipped to monitor the particles.

 

The heavy smog saw at least 25 international and domestic flights to and from Beijing Capital International Airport cancelled by Sunday morning. Many highways were closed in Shandong and Jiangxi provinces, and the poor visibility resulted in a number of collisions on Sunday morning, claiming one life in Shaoyang, Hunan province.

 

China will have to endure this hazardous weather until Jan 16, when cold fronts move into the central and eastern parts of the country, according to Ma Xuekuan, chief weather forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, on Sunday.

 

Face masks

"If he hadn't had a fever today, I wouldn't have brought him to the hospital. I'm afraid the pollution will only make his cough worse," said the mother of a 7-year-old boy being treated at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital on Sunday. Parents and children at the hospital wore face masks.

 

"It only takes me 10 minutes to cycle to work, but when I get home my mask is gray and filthy. It's just terrible," she said.

 

Hospitals in Beijing and in the provinces of Hebei and Hubei have reported a rise in the number of patients with respiratory conditions during recent days, according to local media.

 

In 2012, an estimated 8,572 premature deaths occurred in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'an and Beijing. They were a direct result of high levels of PM2.5, according to a report co-authored by Peking University's School of Public Health and Greenpeace. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization estimates that air pollution caused approximately 470,000 premature deaths in 2008.

 

Continuous, large-scale pollution in the form of smog will create panic among the public and cause people to question the government's handling of environmental issues, according to the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

 

The growth and severity of PM2.5 pollution in recent years is directly related to the rapid rise in coal consumption, allied to an increase in vehicle exhaust emissions. Although cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou are leading the way in the reduction of coal use in absolute terms, air pollution naturally moves with the air currents, meaning some cities share each other's polluted air. The Ministry of Environmental Protection is encouraging places such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta to unite to combat pollution.

 

Since the start of the month, 74 large cities in China have provided daily readings of PM2.5 that are available to the public. As the data becomes more widely available, China is working on a national surveillance and risk-assessment network on the health impact of PM2.5, said Xu Dongqun, deputy director of the institute of environmental health and related product safety at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

"The planned network, the first of its kind on the mainland, will study the exact links between major pollutants, particularly PM2.5 and help the authorities to issue public health warnings ahead of the worst days whenever possible," she said.

 

By studying data from air-quality monitoring stations and records of hospital visits, plus medical and mortality records, the system will provide specific warnings and advice to help the public to protect themselves, explained Xu, although she was unable to provide an exact timetable.

 

The network will start in Beijing, before being rolled out nationwide as the air-quality monitoring data become more widely available across the mainland, she said. "The health impact of the fine particulates varies regionally and among differing population groups."

 

Red light spells danger

"My friends and I have started to make jokes along the lines of 'Right now, it's healthier to smoke in Beijing than to breathe the air,'" said Camille Chanlair, a French national who has lived in the city since 2008. "They all avoid going out when they see the pollution. Some have bought air purifiers," he added.

 

"This is no joke, people! This is serious stuff. You should not be outside right now with your children. Everyone should be taking it easy and avoid going outside," wrote Richard Saint Cyr, a general practitioner at a private hospital in Beijing, in a warning posted on his micro blog before he left work on Saturday evening.

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20130113/180373d28c10125d2b574c.jpg

 

Beijing hospitals reported a rise in the number of young patients seen for respiratory complaints over the weekend. [Photo provided for China Daily]

 

Saint Cyr, who has lived in China for six years, said his clinic has a good air filter system. His 200-square-meter home is also equipped with three air purifiers. "Honestly, with this high level (of pollution) even three purifiers won't really be effective. But at least I can close my bedroom door overnight," said the US national.

 

Zhang Bo, general manager of Beijing Jijian Science & Technology Development Co, said the three air purifiers at his home in Beijing are so overloaded that the red lights (indicating heavy pollution) can't be disarmed.

 

"It usually takes each machine an average of one hour to purify the air (in one room). When that's done, the red light turns green. Now, it stays red all the time," he said, adding that the pollution is so bad that he won't venture out of doors if he can avoid it.

 

Saint Cyr said he has seen an unusually high number of people arriving at the clinic complaining of bad coughs and breathing and pulmonary problems. Most feel better after being treated with cough syrup, but the doctor emphasized that the best treatment is to avoid exposure to the pollutants.

 

"At these levels, people of all ages should really avoid going outside, if possible. These types of pollution spikes can be deadly for very sick and fragile people who are already weak from illness. Anyone with a normal cold or flu will find it much harder to recover quickly in this polluted atmosphere," he said.

 

He recommended N95 filter respirators, a type of mask designed to combat PM2.5 and intended for those with no alternative to going outdoors. "They definitely stop PM2.5. The definition of N95 literally means it filters 95 percent of particulate matter — as small as PM0.3 microns, much smaller than PM2.5."

 

Unsurprisingly, sales of N95 masks surged tenfold on Friday and Saturday compared with the daily average, according to data provided by Taobao and Tmall, two online marketplaces that together hold more than 70 percent of China's online retail market. Local media in Beijing also reported that the capital's pharmacies have almost sold out of face masks, PM2.5-proof or not.

 

Saint Cyr emphasized that children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to spikes in air pollution and suggested that all school systems create air pollution "action plans" based on the science once the official hourly monitoring of PM2.5 begins nationwide.

 

Emergency plans

In fact, there are no official guidelines or emergency plans specifically designed for schools, although some international schools in Beijing have formulated their own.

 

Officially, only Beijing and Shaanxi province have announced their own emergency plans for heavily polluted days. Friday's high level of pollution prompted Beijing's municipal government to put its emergency plan, unveiled on Dec 14, into action for the first time.

 

"Warnings have been released to the public through channels such as micro blogs, television and radio, urging people to reduce the amount of time they spend out of doors and to increase their use of public transport. Schools are being advised to arrange fewer outdoor activities for the kids," said a post on the official micro blog of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

 

It also emphasized that the government will "strengthen law enforcement and the frequency of inspections, ask the relevant plants to reduce emissions and arrange a 30 percent reduction in the use of official vehicles".

 

According to data released by the bureau on Sunday evening, 54 businesses in Beijing have cut their emissions by 30 percent, 28 construction sites have stopped foundation work, Beijing Hyundai Motor Co temporarily halted production on Sunday and one production line has been suspended at Beijing Cement Plant Co.

 

While experts praised the warning as timely and precise, they also criticized the preventive measures for being too lax.

 

"I feel the restrictions on motor vehicles are still too light," said Pan Xiaochuan, a professor at Peking University's School of Public Health. "As the pollution occurred in the weekend instead of during the working week, the use of official vehicles had already been reduced naturally."

 

Pan emphasized that the current plan has no legal backup. "In some countries in Europe, at least half of the motor vehicles are barred from using the roads on heavily polluted days, according to law," he said.

 

Zhou Rong, director of the Greenpeace climate and energy project in Beijing, added that the smog has enveloped many provinces and therefore emergency plans employed by individual cities are unlikely to be satisfactory.

 

"A regional emergency action plan is required," she said. "We can expect a better solution, if the government will is there."

 

Peng Yining, Jiang Xueqing, Shan Juan and Shi Yingying contributed to this story.

Contact the reporters at wuwencong@chinadaily.com.cn, tangyue@chinadaily.com.cn and cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn

Edited January 13, 2013 by Fu Lai (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . or as reported by Xinhua . . http://www.chinafamilyvisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/guitar.gif . . http://www.chinafamilyvisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/no.gif . http://www.chinafamilyvisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/w0kuae.gif


China issues yellow fog alert

China's meteorological authority issued a yellow alert for fog that continued to shroud the country's central and eastern regions on Sunday.

The heavy fog has affected flights at airports in Beijing, Hebei, Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Sichuan, with visibility reduced to around 100 meters at some airports.

[tsap seui]

I've got a funny story about that thar smog stuff. I've lived in very clean air for many years and on my first trip to me the store bought mail order bride I lined up a hotel room in a very nice hotel in Beijing and rented a room high enough up tht it completely overlooked the entire Forbidden City as well as mots of T-man Square. Okay, that first day we check in and you could see all of the Forbidden CIty before the sun went down and in the evenings they light up the roof tops wiht lights that highlite the curved roofs, etc. Yeah well.....we take off the next morning and goes see teh sights, come back and you can barely see the lights on the rooftops....lol

 

Next morning....no more being able to see the Forbidden CIty, it was more like the Hidden Forbidden City. And with one more day left in Beijing we never saw anymore of the place....it was smogged in.

 

Then we went up to Fushun for a few weeks and flew back down to Smogville for our last two days together. Oh my Gawd, we get into a cab to head back to the same hotel and I swear the air counldn't have been any worse if I had had an exhaust pipe from an old car blowing right in my face....actually, that's what it felt like, only I couldn't move away from the exhaust pipe...lol Wenyan and I got a laugh out of it. One one of the many rides back to Shenyang for me to catch a departure flight there on the outskirts of Shenyan is a 3 huge smike towers and buddy they put out many tons of pollutants in the air....I pointed it out to Wenyan with a laugh and said how in America they used to do that and then they made strict laws about it. Her off the cuff comment..."China official have laws too but one official give money ot other official and official stop look."

 

I take all that crap in stride on my trips and laugh about it, it is what it is, many of our cities used to be like that, so the Chinese will turn it around, too....in their own time. I'm not a finger pointer like I see on other boards about China this and China that, especially when we've been no better in our time. They'll turn it around. Anybody remember flying around to different cities in America and seeing huge yellowish brown clouds over the larger cities in the distance as your plane few towards them? We had it just as bad in many of our own cities.

 

I am glad our home over yonder is on the outskirts of the city proper, we have plenty of trees on one side of us that is undeveloped and the city on the other side, pretty rare we get the smog and filth and the racket of downtown Fushun blowing our way. My wife quickly lost her coal dust cough. IT was smal but it was there, kind of wet sounding like she had been a smoker. Within a month here......gone.

 

After a year and a half out here in the rural mountains with air that couldn't get any cleaner I am anxious to hear the comments of Wenyan and Fengqi when they go back to Chinertucky in late May for a 3 month stay. I'm not going to mention it, just going to observe. They are very excited about their first time back.

Edited January 14, 2013 by tsap seui (see edit history)

[Fu Lai]

I was wondering why the normal winter cold I always have was worse this year... now I have purchased a pack of N95 masks

[Fu Lai]

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/attachement/jpg/site1/20130114/0013729e4771125d930626.jpg

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/attachement/jpg/site1/20130114/0013729e4771125d930f29.jpg

[Randy W]

.
Extreme Pollution in Beijing Lights Fire Under State Media


http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-VY898_0114ca_G_20130113211809.jpg

 

“Leaders are aware that the people can wait 20 years or more for democracy, but they can’t wait that long for clean air,” Mr. Liu said. “People care about their own health and the health of their children.”

[Mick]

I noticed both of the cities where we lived in China, Hefei and Shantou, were on the list. My first year in China was spent in Hefei and the air was a true horror. Li and I often ate at a revolving restaurant on the 28th floor of what was then the Holiday Inn. There were times when we could not see the ground because of the pollution. I developed bronchitis shortly after arriving there and pretty much hacked and coughed the whole time. When we moved down to Shantou things were better as the university was way out on the outskirts of the city, plus Shantou is a coastal city and the sea breeze helped thin things out a bit. Still, downtown at street level things were pretty bad at times, especially on very hot days. Shantou is located right on the Tropic of Cancer, at the same latitude as Havana, so it could get very hot down there.

[Fu Lai]

Pollution readings in China’s capital hit severe levels on Saturday night – eventually prompting the city to issue its first-ever “orange” fog warning due to deeply diminished visibility and to institute of number of emergency measures to cope with some Beijing expatriates have taken to calling the “airpocalypse.”

Hilarious... AIRPOCALYPSE - this is the kind of thing the govt is well tuned-in to addressing

[tsap seui]

 

.

Extreme Pollution in Beijing Lights Fire Under State Media

 

 

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-VY898_0114ca_G_20130113211809.jpg

 

 

“Leaders are aware that the people can wait 20 years or more for democracy, but they can’t wait that long for clean air,” Mr. Liu said. “People care about their own health and the health of their children.”

Yeah man, that's it, the HIdden Forbidden City. I could only laugh at the fact I had paid for a room with a view of the thing. At least we could see some of the lights outlinin' the curved corners of the roofs at night. And come to think of it, what was I doing even standing at the stoopid winder lookin' out....I had me a mail order bride sittin' on a spinnin' terlet seat waitin' fer me, I had no earthly right lookin' out the big winder.

 

Ya know, come to think of it, on a senior class trip we took to NYC back in 1968 I remember walking around the city on our tours and how just plain grimey and filthy I felt out there in the throngs of people, like I needed to go take a shower. I never felt that way in China....lol

 

Oh well, it's China, they'll get around to fixin' the problem...just like we did.

 

tsap seui