"Supersmog" in Harbin closes city

[ameriken]

Super smog in northern Chinese city of Harbin closes schools, cancels flight and halts buses Updated: Monday, October 21, 6:53 AM

 

BEIJING — Visibility shrank to less than half a football field and small-particle pollution soared to a record 40 times higher than an international safety standard in one northern Chinese city as the region entered its high-smog season.

The manager for U.S. jazz singer Patti Austin, meanwhile, said the singer had canceled a concert in Beijing because of an asthma attack likely linked to pollution.

Winter typically brings the worst air pollution to northern China because of a combination of weather conditions and an increase in the burning of coal for homes and municipal heating systems, which usually starts on a specific date. For the large northern city of Harbin, the city’s heating systems kicked in o

“I couldn’t see anything outside the window of my apartment, and I thought it was snowing,” Wu Kai, 33, a housewife and mother of a baby boy, said in a telephone interview from Harbin. “Then I realized it wasn’t snow. I have not seen the sun for a long time.”

She said her husband went to work in a mask, that he could barely see a few meters (yards) ahead of him and that his usual bus had stopped running.

“It’s scary, too dangerous. How could people drive or walk on such a day?”

The density of fine particulate matter, PM2.5, used as an indicator of air quality was well above 600 micrograms per cubic meter — including several readings of exactly 1,000 — for several monitoring stations in Harbin, according to figures posted on the website of China’s environmental protection agency. They were the first known readings of 1,000 since China began releasing figures on PM2.5 in January 2012, and it was not immediately clear if the devices used for monitoring could give readings higher than that.

A safe level under WHO guidelines is 25 micrograms per cubic meter.

Primary and middle schools and some highways were closed, said authorities in the city, which is in China’s northernmost province bordering Russia. At least 40 flights to destinations in southern China and Beijing among others were canceled or postponed at Harbin’s Taiping International Airport on Monday morning.

Austin’s management team said the 63-year-old singer had been treated in a hospital Friday morning for an asthma attack in combination with a respiratory infection. She returned to her hotel later Friday to rest, but was unable to perform at her Beijing concert scheduled for Friday evening. Her Saturday night concert in Shanghai went ahead.

Her manager, Barry Orms, said Monday that Austin, as an asthma sufferer, would have been “affected by the amount of pollution.” He said that it wasn’t their goal to place blame, and that “Patti has expressed our belief that the Chinese government can be a leader in this very important issue.”

On the morning ahead of her concert Friday, Beijing’s air was visibly polluted, with the city’s environmental monitoring center warning children, the elderly and those with respiratory illnesses to reduce outdoor activity.

China’s major cities have some of the world’s worst smog. The government was long indifferent to the environment as it pursued economic development, but has begun launching some anti-pollution initiatives after mounting public frustration.

Last month, China’s Cabinet released an action plan that aims to make a small reduction in the country’s heavy reliance on coal to below 65 percent of total energy usage by 2017. According to Chinese government statistics, coal consumption accounted for 68.4 percent of total energy use in 2011.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/heavy-smog-in-northern-chinese-city-of-harbin-halts-buses-closes-schools-cancels-flights/2013/10/21/57165d96-3a0c-11e3-b0e7-716179a2c2c7_story.html

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2013-10-21/AP/Images/China%20Pollution.JPEG-0bfec.jpg

Edited October 21, 2013 by ameriken (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Not exactly a heavy duty plan of attack, but it'll have to do for now, I guess. Step 1 - acknowledge the problem

 

Choking the dragon: Government acts as smog suffocates China

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/828349.shtml?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer2fca4&utm_medium=facebook#.UpbahZ6VNQA

 

http://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2011/465a328c-91f9-435d-88c7-6b2e39519bd7.gif

[Mick]

So sad to hear of this. Like most folks on this board, I have a great love for China and its people. They served as my host for over five years and treated me with much love and respect. I hate to see the air continue to deteriorate to such an alarming level. I wonder if this will impact Harbin's famous Ice Festival, known for its beautiful ice sculptures - I hope not. Not sure when that is slated to begin, but imagine construction starts well before opening.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Mick (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Shanghai's smog gives expats second thoughts

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8477523.html

 

"It's horrifying. I've never seen anything like this. I feel like I've had a constant hangover for four days," said Tom Duvalier of Chicago. "If you go down into the subway system, the same smell is in the air. It's everywhere."

 

The air quality index measured by the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center stood at 482 as of 6 pm, while the US Consulate gauged it at 503 at 2 pm — a reading "beyond the index". Levels above 300 are considered "hazardous".

 

 

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/pearl-towersmog2.jpg

[Randy W]

Nanjing Fashion Show

http://shanghaiist.com/2013/12/07/models-nanjing-fashion-show-smog.php

 

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/model-mask2.jpg

[Mick]

Li's brother sent some photos from Changzhou, in Jiangsu Province, where he lives. In a recent government study, Changzhou had the worst air readings in the entire country. He even joked that he had stopped walking his dog because once outside, even though on a leash, he could no longer see his dog. As I have mentioned before, my first year in China was spent in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province. Li and I often dined in the revolving restaurant on the 28th floor of what was then the Holiday Inn. On some days, we could not see the ground. And that was over 15 years ago. I can't imagine how bad it is now. When I first arrived there, I could actually feel burning in my throat on really bad days. I developed bronchitis two weeks after arriving there, and it did not go away until 11 months later when we moved to Shantou, down on the northeast coast of Guangdong.

[amberjack1234]

Those pictures are not so bad actually. I have actually seen it in Beijing where seeing across that street in the background of your posted photo would have been impossible. That has been a long time ago too. I think that these were kinda staged.

 

Larry

[ameriken]

My wife's cousin in Shanghai sent some photos on the street...can't see the stop lights a block away. I'm not looking forward to this as we're going back over Christmas/New Year.

 

 

Shanghai's smog gives expats second thoughts

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8477523.html

 

"It's horrifying. I've never seen anything like this. I feel like I've had a constant hangover for four days," said Tom Duvalier of Chicago. "If you go down into the subway system, the same smell is in the air. It's everywhere."

The air quality index measured by the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center stood at 482 as of 6 pm, while the US Consulate gauged it at 503 at 2 pm — a reading "beyond the index". Levels above 300 are considered "hazardous".

 

 

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/pearl-towersmog2.jpg

 

[tsap seui]

Take some scuba diving oxygen tanks Ken. What the hell, wear the flippers and the diving mask too, hold your hands out in front of you when you walk down the sidewalk and look like the thing that came from beneath the city. LOL

 

I may just do that whenever I ever go back to China, shucks they all stare at me in Fushun anyhow, may as well really give them something to stare at. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

 

Good luck, and have a good time with the trip.

[Guest ExChinaExpat]

Hard to call any movement in China progress to cleaning the air while they continue to call it haze and fog. They refuse to add modern technology to automobiles, like catalytic converters and hydrocarbon control. And, forget going after the major polluters and adding cleaning and scrubbing equipment to smoke-stacks.

 

What do you see instead? They go after the poor street vendor in an effort to make it look like they're doing something. China has no intention of taking the hard steps necessary to clean their air because their afraid it will affect business growth.

 

 

 

Chinese state media reported that the barbecue grills were destroyed on Tuesday amid the city's efforts to fight air pollution and lingering foggy weather.

BEIJING — More than 500 illegal outdoor barbecues, which Chinese state media say cause "serious air pollution", have been destroyed in Beijing as part of an emergency program to alleviate the city's often hazardous pollution.

The raids were part of a three-month operation to supervise the barbecues, many of which are operated by ethnic Uighur Muslims from the restive Xinjiang province in China's west.

"Over 500 illegal barbecue grills in Beijing were destroyed on Tuesday amid the city's efforts to fight air pollution and lingering foggy weather," state media Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

I see this recent news report more an attempt to create a political illusion rather than something that will actually be implemented:

 

U.S. to help China crack down on vehicle emissions

December 5, 2013 - 2:34 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States will help China implement stricter emission standards for vehicles in a bid to help the world's biggest carbon emitter tackle rampant air pollution, the White House said today.

The announcement was one of several made at the conclusion of Vice President Joe Biden's visit to China, where he met with President Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese officials to discuss ways to strengthen economic ties between the countries in addition to the escalating geopolitical tensions in the East China Sea.

Under the new agreement, the United States pledged to give China technical assistance to implement a new round of vehicle emissions standards, known as China VI, which would require cars to have filters that capture particulate matter that contributes to heavy smog.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20131205/OEM11/131209907/u.s.-to-help-china-crack-down-on-vehicle-emissions#axzz2mqP0zjxu

Edited December 8, 2013 by GuangDongExpat (see edit history)

[tsap seui]

500 illegal outdoor barbecues destroyed?? What a sad joke.

 

Back in 2007 on one of my trips, we were heading back to the Shenyang airport. Out the taxi window was a bunch of smokestacks belching black crud into the air. I pointed at them and said, "In America officials have laws to make air clean". Wenyan glanced at the smoke stacks and said, China have laws too,, but one official give other official money and nobody gets in trouble." LOL

 

tsap seui

[Guest ExChinaExpat]

500 illegal outdoor barbecues destroyed?? What a sad joke.

 

Back in 2007 on one of my trips, we were heading back to the Shenyang airport. Out the taxi window was a bunch of smokestacks belching black crud into the air. I pointed at them and said, "In America officials have laws to make air clean". Wenyan glanced at the smoke stacks and said, China have laws too,, but one official give other official money and nobody gets in trouble." LOL

 

tsap seui

 

It's very sad to see China's poor have their very livelihood destroyed by police. These street vendors work day and night just to eek out a few yuan profit to feed their families. It's almost like the Hunger Games are playing out now on the streets of China.

[Mick]

If it wasn't such a sad, critical situation, the notion of going after 500 barbecues is almost laughable. It's like having a mosquito landing on one leg and a rattlesnake crawling up the other, and they are swatting at the mosquito.

 

The street vendors contributions to pollution, when compared to unregulated industry and automobile emissions, is a drop in the bucket. I would imagine the street vendors suffer the most from their grills as they are standing right over them. On top of that, they are out in the bad air at street level all day. It has got to be a really hard way to make a living.

 

I remember how bad things used to be here in the States. Some of us geezers are old enough to remember Love Canal or the time the Cuyohoga (sp?) River caught fire in downtown Cleveland. Some of the worst air in America was right down here in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham used to be the Pittsburgh of the South, with iron and steel mills humming 24/7. They used to play the Alabama/Auburn game at Legion Field in Birmingham and that's how the game became known as the Iron Bowl. The air was a horror. Yet at its worst it was never quite like what they have in China.

[Guest ExChinaExpat]

Along with the filthy toxic air in China comes a lot of dust and particulates. Whatever is contained in that dust can't be good. I've been living in China almost six years now and have adjusted about as well as one can to the pollution. I remember just how sensitive I was to the air upon first arrival: sore watery eyes, sore throat and chest, and so on. However, today the air in Guangzhou is extremely bad. Early this morning I took a taxi to a friend's home and did a little work in the garden on the roof for about an hour. Then, returned home by taxi. During the taxi ride I began to cough and had chest pain and sore throat. Everyone is having trouble today, as the particulates are extremely high.

 

Here is a photo that shows dust accumulation inside my home in the last 24 hours. Keep in mind this accumulation happens with all windows and doors closed. If you look carefully at the base of the TV where I swiped my finger, you will see a few dust particles that accumulated in the less-than-one-minute from the time I swiped it, until I took the photo.

 

http://i40.tinypic.com/27ydefs.jpg

Edited December 9, 2013 by GuangDongExpat (see edit history)