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Is Beijing more polluted than Paris? (2)
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Monday, 11 December 2006,
Written by Julien
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I spent some time recently looking more precisely on the calculations of the indexes in Beijing, and I thought it could be interesting to compare the target with Paris indexes.
The target of Beijing city is to have more than 200 days of "blue sky" a year, which means having an air pollution index lower than II (good). In Paris, the air pollution index goes from 1 to 10, 4 and below being considered as good.
For each pollutant, I converted the Beijing index to Paris index... here are the results:
| Pollutant | Beijing index | Concentration Max | Paris index |
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| SO2 | II | Good | 150µg/m3 | 4 | Good | | NO2 | II | Good | 120µg/m3 | 5 | Medium | | PM10 (particles) | II | Good | 150µg/m3 | 10 | Very bad |
The conclusion is that compared to Paris, the targets of Beijing Municipality are reasonable for NO2 and SO2. Regarding particles, the difference is huge and kind of worrying!
And you, what do you think?
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Is Beijing more polluted than Paris?
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Wednesday, 06 December 2006,
Written by Julien
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I was recently discussing with someone living in Beijing for quite a while, and he told me: "Every one says that Beijing is polluted, but are you sure that it is really more polluted than Paris?" This question might seem stupid for anyone who breathed in Beijing for more than a month, but the answer is not that straightforward.
For example, ozone is a pollutant that normal people do not notice even if ozone have a big impact on health. On the other hand, everyone is concerned by the dust, which has very little impact because most of the dust is stopped by the nose and the mouth.
To answer this question, I decided to compare official figures provided by Paris and Beijing pollution bureau. First observation, the data provided by Paris bureau is more detailed than the data provided by Beijing. For Beijing, only 4 pollutants are provided: SO2, NO2, PM10 (particles) and CO. Notably, ozone is not included in Beijing data.
Anyway, let's compare data on the same basis, so only for those four pollutants.
Here are the data:
| Paris | Beijing |
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| SO2 | 6 | 50 | | NO2 | 37 | 66 | | PM10 | 20 | 142 | | CO | 400 | 2000 |
The data above are yearly averages for 2005. Units: µg/m3
Unfortunately, the result is clear: on a yearly basis, Beijing is much more polluted than Paris! Notably, PM10 are 7 times more present in Beijing, and CO 5 times!
These data are considered on yearly basis and do not show the variations that can occur on a daily basis. I hope I can compare the daily data sooner or later.
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Read more...
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Monday, 04 December 2006,
Written by Julien
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As I said in my introductory message, it is not that useful talking about pollution if we do not have a look to the possible solutions! Chinese people do try to reduce the discomfort coming from the pollution, as shown by this girl, riding bicycle along the second ring road, wearing a surgical mask...
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Read more...
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Sunday, 03 December 2006,
Written by Julien
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Let's continue the set of pictures, with another kind of pollution: the construction works and the dust and particles they generate...
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Saturday, 02 December 2006,
Written by Julien
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So yesterday we had a nice weather but we also had a lot of wind, wind coming directly from the North. Blue sky, but freezing cold! Fortunately Beijing is not as cold as Harbin (-22°C today!)
So we all need to warm our places, Chinese people included:
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Read more...
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Friday, 01 December 2006,
Written by Julien
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Today I was enjoying the nice weather in Beijing and I thought: "Hum, nice blue sky and no smog! That's the perfect day to take few pictures!" I took many pictures, to show the different sources of pollution we have around here.
So first picture, the second ring road, Friday on 4pm:
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Read more...
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Welcome to Pollution-China.com
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Thursday, 30 November 2006,
Written by Julien
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The aim of this website is to deal with pollution in China and how to live with it.
We all know that pollution is everywhere in China: air, water, soil, food... And we all know that this pollution has an impact on our life and our health. That's a fact, but what? Should we flee away or should we live in bunkers, eating can food and drinking imported water???
I'm sure that there are other options, to keep living in China and still not altering too much our life expectancy. That's the scope of this website: Talking about pollution, but in a proactive way.
Since february 2008, we not only talk about pollution, we also act: We bring solutions to the market, solutions for protecting our health, solutions for reducing our impact!
Feel free to give your comments and share your own solutions.
Technical notice: This website is made using only open source softwares (notably Joomla! and Ubuntu) and is compliant with internet standards (XHTML, CSS and RSS). For more information on open source in Beijing, visit the Beijing LUG !
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Some useful links on pollution and health
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Thursday, 30 November 2006,
Written by Julien
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To write this blog, I usually use many sources: chats with friends and experts, books, online resources...
Here are some of my preferred sources. If you know other valuables sources, please add a comment below.
This page is still on progress, additional sources come soon
Health
- Canadian Lung Association, clear and simple information on both indoor and outdoor air: English - French
- World Health Organization (WHO), with many extremely interesting topics on health in English, French and Chinese. Homepage, Air, Environmental health
Pollution
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Thursday, 30 November 2006,
Written by Julien
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This website is run by Julien, a 26 years old French entrepreneur, living in Beijing since July 2005.
Being at the same time fond of urban sports and interested in environmental issues, I am deeply worried about pollution in China. It is a threat for our health and for China itself.
I also like challenges and thus decided to do something against that matter of fact: I created www.pollution-china.com to share my views, to build up some knowledge and to find solutions.
To make this effort sustainable, I am building a company to distribute the best solutions we find. Help us and visit our online catalogue!
In addition, I am also active in my community to promote ideas I believe in. Discover the French Junior Chamber in Beijing.
To contact me, please let a message below...
Sometimes, the press talk about us:
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