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Thursday, 27 March 2008,
Written by Julien
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There has been a leap forward for pollution-china.com this week! We now offer you a solution for fighting pollution while on polluted streets: Respro anti-pollution masks!
Just check out our catalogue , chose your mask and get it! The other major change that occured this week is the repair of Beijing air comparator. You can again know how bad the air in Beijing is!
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Sandstorms also caused by human activity?
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Friday, 14 March 2008,
Written by Trouni
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As Melanie mentionned in her comment on the previous article, it often happens that sandstorms hit East Asia (China but also Korea and Japan) during this time of the year. The "yellow dust" from the Gobi Desert is blown eastward over China and thus contributes to air pollution in major cities like Beijing, by increasing the concentration of dust and particles.
In fact, NASA just uploaded on one of its website (Earth Observatory/Natural Hazards, already mentionned in this article) an interesting satellite image showing a dust storm over East Asia that happened on March 1.
On this picture, you can clearly see the cloud of tan-colored dust passing just south from Beijing. And by checking the graph posted a few days ago, you can also see the sandstorm's impact on Beijing's air quality: a pollution peak (API of 127) appears around March 1.
You might think that even nature contributes to air pollution in China, but actually, it seems like human activities strongly increased the occurence of dust storms (from once every 31 years until 1949 to once a year since 1990).
The municipal meteorological observatory forecast about 10 days of sandy weather in the capital city this spring... (source: Xinhua)
Update (18 March 2008):
A sandstorm hits Beijing today, bringing once again pollution to an unreached level this year, with an API of 305 according to the Beijing Environmental Bureau.
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Beijing's most polluted day so far this year...
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Tuesday, 11 March 2008,
Written by Trouni
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Even though Beijing's "Blue Sky" days are still quite polluted, I'm pretty sure most Beijingers like me enjoyed the city's sunny and pleasant weather from the past last weeks.
However, even though weather forecast said yesterday (March 10) was a bright sunny day, unwelcome smog made it tougher to enjoy a bright blue sky in the city. As a matter of fact, yesterday, Beijing had an API of 238 (grade IV), which grants that day to be the most polluted day so far in 2008.
Beijing's daily API since January 1, 2008
It is also interesting to focus on the API reported by the different monitoring stations. You probably remember that some downtown stations were powered off, being replaced by new ones in the countryside. Therefore, whereas
Badaling's new monitoring station reported an API of 78 (grade II), the
lucky Beijingers living in Chaoyang enjoyed an API rising up to 339 (grade V).
An API of 339 corresponds to a PM10 concentration of 451µg/m3,
exceeding more than nine times the WHO air quality guidelines on PM10
(50µg/m3 for 24hr mean).
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Wednesday, 06 February 2008,
Written by Julien
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Happy New Year of the Rat!
This new year celebration is once more the occasion to burn tons of fireworks. This week should be a relief for our lungs as most of the factories are shutdown and as people do not have to commute for few days. But no, fireworks are here and create a nice city-wide smoke!
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If you can't get the air cleaner, just change the way you measure!
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Sunday, 03 February 2008,
Written by Julien
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The changes that occurred in the measurement and communication of Beijing air quality goes further than just not providing detailed data (see my previous post).
Beijing environment bureau decided to change a bit the way it measures the pollution: they removed stations downtown and created new ones in the country side. So there are still 27 stations and the average of the measures still gives the overall result for Beijing. However, among the new stations, there is one in Badaling and at Miyun reservoir.
For those not familiar with Beijing, Miyun reservoir is in the mountain, about one hour out of Beijing. As the water is to be drunk by millions of Beijingers, no activity is allowed next to the lake (neither industry nor transportation). For sure, the quality of the air there is among the best in all Beijing province!
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Shanghai comparator up, Beijing comparator still down...
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Thursday, 31 January 2008,
Written by Julien
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I took me quite some time to try having Shanghai and Beijing comparators up again.
For Shanghai, it's done, and the comparison is done as before.
For Beijing, it is not so easy. Since January 1st, Beijing Environment Bureau only provides the general index and the main pollutant. It is not sufficient to compare properly with other cities' indexes. Previously, we had the indexes for three pollutants (SO2, NO2 and PM10) with which we could calculate the concentrations. I keep trying to find a solution, but as we get closer to the Olympics, it will be harder to get reliable data...
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Comparator down for maintenance!
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Thursday, 03 January 2008,
Written by Julien
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Beijing and Shanghai pollution websites have been updated over the new Year holiday. The comparator will be updated soon to adapt to those new versions.
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A step toward a common air pollution index in Europe!
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Friday, 21 December 2007,
Written by Julien
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I just discovered this website: www.airqualitynow.eu. It is an European webportal to compare air quality across borders.
I think that's a very good news for citizens' awareness about outdoor pollution. Right now, each country (and sometime each city) has its own index, making it really hard for normal people to understand and compare.
26 cities are already participating to this initiative. I hope more and more cities will join it, so Europe could have a well understood Common Air Quality Index!
I created the comparator on this website, so people could translate Chinese pollution in their national standard. I will soon add this CAQI in the comparator...
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Pollution in China seen by NYT
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Monday, 17 December 2007,
Written by Julien
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The New York Times is free since few months only and that's definitely good news (you only need a free registration). They are currently publishing a really interesting series of articles about pollution in China.
I read the first article some months back, As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes, which gives an in depth overview of the situation in China.
It is actually part of a complete series called "Chocking on growth", which already has 8 long articles plus videos, dealing with subjects like water, air, Three Gorges dam...
The last article is about food, In China, Farming Fish in Toxic Waters. Read it and you will think twice before eating fish in China again!
 Picture: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
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Compare now pollution in Shanghai!
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Sunday, 16 December 2007,
Written by Julien
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Up to now, it was only possible to compare pollution in Beijing to pollution indexes of other cities/countries around the world.
Now, it is also possible to compare the pollution in Shanghai, with all the indexes available:
- Austria
- Belgium
- France
- Hong Kong
- Madrid
- UK
- the USA
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