Cleaner Air is Just HEALTHIER

[Randy W]

. . . in the WSJ

 

Benefits of Breathing: Beijing’s Olympic Babies Born Heavier, Study Finds

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-ID062_pollut_G_20150428085542.jpg

 

A baby accepts nebulizer therapy at Beijing Children’s Hospital in Beijing after excessive levels of air pollution hit the capital in early 2013.

 

 

A study released in a scientific journal on Tuesday finds that women who were pregnant during the 2008 Beijing Olympics – when aggressive measures by the Chinese government over a seven-week period significantly reduced air pollution – gave birth to heavier and presumably healthier babies.

 

 

[Randy W]

This is a new report (concluded just this month), although there doesn't seem to be anything new in their conclusions. There IS a LOT of detail, so take a look if you're interested.

It DOES point to coal as the primary source of pollution. I believe that's just as true in the south as in the north. Coal is in heavy use EVERYWHERE in China, not just during the winter months.



KILLER AIR
Berkeley Earth Publishes Study on Air Pollution in China

In the Shanghaiist:

Study: China's air pollution kills 4,400 people a day

An independent research group has released a study on air quality in China. The findings aren't pretty.

Berkeley Earth, an independent research group funded largely by educational grants, took air quality data from 1,500 sites across East Asia in coming to the conclusion that air pollution results in around 4,400 deaths per day in China or 1.6 million deaths per year.

The researchers found that 92 percent of China’s population experienced at least 120 hours of unhealthy air during the study period from April 5, 2014 and August 5, 2014. For 38 percent of the population, the average pollution level across the entire four-month period was deemed as unhealthy. According to Reuters

The most dangerous of the pollutants studied were fine airborne particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which can find their way deep into human lungs, be absorbed into the bloodstream and cause a host of health problems, including asthma, strokes, lung cancer and heart attacks.

 

The researchers also examined where the pollutants were detected and concluded that the sources of PM2.5s matching those for sulfur dioxide suggests most of the pollution comes from burning coal, especially in a northeast corridor extending from Shanghai to north of Beijing.

 

China gets about 64 percent of its primary energy from coal, according to National Energy Administration data. It’s closing the dirtiest plants while still planning new, cleaner ones. The country is expected to shut 60 gigawatts of plants from 2016 to 2020 though three times as many plants are scheduled to be built using newer technology, according to Sophie Lu, a Bloomberg New Energy finance analyst in Beijing.

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

Beijing’s pollution saviour: Mother Nature

Residents say officials now rely on weather to control capital’s dire smog

 

 

 

before:

 

http://cdn3.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486x302/public/images/methode/2015/12/03/6f05340c-9911-11e5-9aa0-28ea742fb738_1280x720.jpg?itok=cSsFgqNC

 

after:

 

http://www.scmp.com/video/china/1886339/sky-turns-clear-beijing-after-nightmare-smog?comment-sort=recommended

 

According to Beijing Severe Air Pollution Contingency Plan, a red alert can only be issued by the Beijing Emergency Management Office after being approved by the city mayor. It should be issued 24 hours in advance if air quality is forecast to be severe, with the air quality index over 300, for 72 hours.

But Peng said it was not possible to forecast air pollution precisely for a period longer than three days, and the Beijing environmental watchdog was upgrading its air quality projection system at a cost of 30 million yuan to extend forecasts to five days.

 

after and before -

 

http://cdn1.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486x302/public/2015/12/02/forbiddencity-onedayafter.jpg?itok=0h1YvyRj

[tsap seui]

Wenyan has been in China since November 18th.....she already has her little cough back. Once she comes home to Pennsyltucky it will take a couple of weeks for her to lose it.

[Randy W]

Get your masks ready! Beijing issues its first ever RED ALERT for smog

 

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/red_alert2.jpg

 

A red alert means that from 7 a.m. on Tuesday to 12 p.m. on Thursday, public schools will be closed and there will be a strict odd-even car ban imposed. Also, it should go without saying, but no barbecuing!

 

. . .

 

IT'S A RED ALERT! Everyone put on your masks, grab your industrial vacuum cleaners and follow Nut Brother into battle!

 

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/smog_brick.jpg

 

[True Blue]

The air in China is a bit like peanut butter - it comes in two flavors - smooth and extra crunchy!

 

My eye opening experience was going to a Chinese hospital in Kunming for lung ailments then having the Chinese doctor walk in smoking like a chimney while I was gasping for oxygen.

 

 

True Blue

Edited December 9, 2015 by True Blue (see edit history)

[Randy W]

This isn't CO2 that the sun is setting into over Guangzhou (taken from the Guangzhou Tower last year)

 

[Greg.D.]

Wife went to her medical exam yesterday, with her X-Ray CD. The doctor said "I can see you are a smoker".

 

"Huh? Oh, no, but I've lived in Beijing the last 10 years"

 

He said he can see the carbon depositing throughout her lungs. He suggested it would go away after living in Colorado a while.

[Randy W]

A legacy of the Olympics' clean air campaign?

 

from the WSJ

 

China Basks in ‘G-20 Blue’ as Factories Ordered to Shut

 

 

 

To ensure that the sky appears clean and blue during the G-20 meetings next week in the eastern city of Hangzhou, Chinese authorities are ordering hundreds of factories in five provinces to stop working. The control area extends westward 250 miles over area near the famed Yellow Mountains to Jingdezhen where the local government says over 100 factories face operating restrictions.

Shutting down factories to curb pollution has become a routine for China when it holds big international events following the success of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. After Beijing enjoyed crystal clear skies the week it hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in 2014 — the event where political leaders dined on plates crafted in Jingdezhen — many in China adopted the term “APEC Blue” to indicate something wonderful but fleeting. Now Hangzhou is basking in “G-20 Blue,” and the joy has spread north to Shanghai where pollution controls are also in place.

 

[Randy W]

Is ammonia China's saving grace?

 

In the Smithsonianmag, a comparison of China's smog today with that of London in 1952 -

 

Researchers Dive Into the Science of London's Deadly Fog

In 1952, up to 12,000 people died when acidic fog covered the city of London. A new study explains why it happened

 

By the time the fog lifted on December 9, 150,000 had been hospitalized and at least 4,000 died from the fog, according to a press release. In 2004, that estimate was revised since many died in the months following the incident. The final death tally was up to 12,000 people.

While everyone knew the incident was driven by the sulfur dioxide in coal smoke, which created an acid when it combined with water vapor, no one could figure out exactly how the process worked. In order for a fog to form, the water vapors must be nearly neutral, not acidic. But a new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, that focuses on pollution in China may have finally cracked the cold, foggy case.

Guarino reports that an international group of researchers looked at the chemistry of the heavy air pollution in the Chinese cities of Xian and Beijing. Like 1950s London, those cities have high levels of sulfur dioxide. But they wondered why the smog in Britain turned deadly while the pollution in China, while harmful in the long run, does not convert into deadly concentrations of acid.

The researchers collected air samples from the cities and also conducted experiments in the lab to figure out the chemistry of the Chinese pollution. What they discovered is that the hazes form by two different mechanisms. Burning coal releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which interacted in the water droplets common in the London skies. Initially, the water particles in the fog were large enough to dilute the acid, forming a near neutral fog. But as water vapor evaporated, the fog became acidic, eventually concentrating so strongly that breathing it in was enough to damage the lungs.

In China, however, the researchers found that a third compound entered the mix: ammonia, which comes from agriculture and automobiles. These chemicals all combine to create smog, but the ammonia helps neutralize the fog's acidity, allowing the fog to form and preventing it from becoming deadly.

Still, the research, led by Texas A&M researcher Renyi Zhang does show that controlling nitrogen dioxide and ammonia could help combat some of China’s pollution problems. “We think we have helped solve the 1952 London fog mystery and also have given China some ideas of how to improve its air quality,” Zhang says in the press release. “Reduction in emissions for nitrogen oxides and ammonia is likely effective in disrupting this sulfate formation process.”

 

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

Nine days during the National People's Congress in March, 2013 . . .

 

http://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980x551/public/images/methode/2016/12/09/a88e921c-bd2e-11e6-b1a9-d0a597083a8f_1280x720.JPG?itok=SzPLIr9a

 

How China’s quick blue-sky fixes make pollution worse

Study finds polluters promptly pick up their bad old ways as focus returns to economic output

[Randy W]

Trapped in Beijing - from the Shanghaiist. Highways and airport closed.

 

Hundreds of flights canceled due to heavy smog, Beijingers stuck in airpocalypse without hope

 

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/smog_airport7.jpg

 

By Tuesday evening, 351 flight departures had been canceled due to "limited visibility" yesterday at the Beijing Capital International Airport, the world's second biggest airport.

 

At the same time, multiple highways running in, out and around the city of over 20 million people were shut down in recent days in a desperate effort to keep vehicles off the road.

With many residents trying to flee the city, these efforts have effectively blocked their escape route, trapping them inside smog hell.

 

[Randy W]

People's Daily, China

12 hrs ·

Time-lapsing video shows what it looks like when heavy smog rolls into Beijing

Don't forget to subscribe our YouTube channel to stay tuned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl8NcEy45kA

 

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

Beijing’s new ‘smog police’ detain man for causing air pollution for first time

Long criticised as toothless, capital’s environmental watchdog finally bares its teeth

 

 

The environmental watchdog in Beijing has bared its teeth by detaining a man for discharging untreated emissions into the air, as authorities becoming increasingly serious about dealing with the Chinese capital city’s persistent air pollution.

It is the first time Beijing’s environmental police have put someone behind bars since a new environmental police squad was set up in January to crack down on causes of air pollution, including open-air barbecues, garbage incineration and the burning of wood.

An inspection by the environmental watchdog of a heating supply company in Mentougou district found that a key air pollutant reduction component did not function at all due to “operation against regulation” by a staff member, which resulted in the emission of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide at 10 times the allowed level, according to a report on the website of the Legal Daily.

 

 

[Randy W]

in the Shanghaiist - "It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it."

 

 

Meet the brave women who are tasked with sniffing out China's air pollution with their noses

 

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/pollution_sniffers4.jpg

 

Each day, dozens of bags of air taken from sites across the city are brought into the city's environment monitoring center for these ladies to sniff. While you might think that China's extensive network of automatic air quality monitoring sites would be sufficient, it turns out that in some ways technology just doesn't measure up to the human nose.

 

"Responding to reports on pollution has to be done quickly," says Wang Haiying, senior air pollution sniffer. "Using your nose is a quick way of determining where the pollution exists, and how bad it is. Especially when you have no idea about the source or the level of the pollution."