Pollution-china.com - Blog

Respro Masks price cut! Breathing good air is now cheaper!

2010-08-31T12:09:13+00:00

Because air pollution levels stay high in China, we pursue our efforts to make clean air accessible to more and more people. With increasing volumes of Respro anti-pollution masks sold every day in China we have been able to lower our costs. We are proud to announce a major price cut on Respro Masks and Filters in China by up to 20%.

Our most popular product, the Respro Techno Mask is now only RMB399, below the RMB400 thresold, and Respro Sportsta Mask is down to RMB389. Metro Mask and Bandit Scarf are even more accessible from RMB279.

In addition, to help you reduce the opertating costs of your Respro mask, we now propose sepcial offers:

Buy 1 Techno Filter Pack with your Techno Mask , the Techno Filter Pack is only RMB169 (instead of RMB249).
Buy 1 Sportsta Filter Pack with your Sportsta Mask , the Sportsta Filter Pack is only RMB149 (instead of RMB169).
Buy 2 Techno Filter Packs , each Techno Filter Pack is only RMB199.5 (instead of RMB249).

All our products are still available in Beijing, in Shanghai, in Guangzhou and all over China, through our distributors and this website (link to the catalogue ).

Urban liveability and the Bicycle

2010-06-25T09:33:56+00:00

Last Saturday I attended a conference by Shannon Bufton on "Urban Liveability and the Bicycle" . His main argument is that when city planning is focused towards car usage it has a negative impact on liveability. Too many cars in a city create traffic congestion, increase accident rates for cyclists and pedestrians, generate sound and air pollution... In one sentence, a car-friendly city is a people-unfriendly city.

There are now around 4 million cars in Beijing. It is hard to really realize what it means so Shannon Bufton gave a very striking comparison: if you put all those cars next to each other, it would take all the space within second ring road. So to be able to park all the cars Beijing has, one would have to obliterate all historical building in Beijing into an immense parking lot: the Forbidden City, TianAnMen square, Temple of Heaven, all the hutongs would have to be destroyed in order to fit so many cars.

Developping bike usage and public transit networks would reduce the space required by cars. How could all this space be better used to create a better city (and of course a better life :)?

Facemasks have the potential to prevent cardiovascular events

2009-08-24T11:54:55+00:00

As the concentration of fine particles is quite high in Beijing, it is a good place to assess the efficiency of facemasks . A team from the Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences of Edinburgh University just published a scientific study on this topic . Their findings are quite interesting as they show some measurable improvements linked with wearing a mask.

Basically, 15 healthy volunteers were asked to walk on a predefined city centre route in Beijing in the presence and absence of a highly efficient facemask. Personal exposure to ambient air pollution and exercise was assessed continuously using portable real-time monitors and global positional system tracking respectively. Cardiovascular effects were assessed by continuous electrocardiographic and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

The conclusion of their study is straightforward:
"Wearing a facemask appears to abrogate the adverse effects of air pollution on blood pressure and heart rate variability. This simple intervention has the potential to protect susceptible individuals and prevent cardiovascular events in cities with high concentrations of ambient air pollution."

The mask tested was a dust respirator complying to FFP1 European standard and of course not a traditional Beijing Opera facemask!

Many thanks to Vance, a fellow blogger on pollution in Beijing, who sent me the link to this report. His great blog is available again in China at the following address: http://www.livefrombeijing.com

Earth Week?

2009-04-27T18:00:45+00:00

Last Wednesday was Earth Day. I went to the BBQ organized by Greening the Beige . After Earth Hour at the end of March, it was another occasion to talk about environment. It is really nice to talk but I have the feeling that those awareness rising initiatives do not have big impact in the short term.

Switching from electricity to candles for an hour is quite debatable from a pure environmental point of view (candles are much less efficient than bulbs!) and it might also give a wrong message: "Switch off the lights for one hour and forget about environment until next year"! I found this great article from The Australian that sums it up well. What stated there is so true: "Unfortunately, this event - as with many public proposals on climate change - is an entirely symbolic gesture that creates the mistaken impression that there are easy, quick fixes to climate change."

Earth Day is a bit better as the message tends to be less simplistic, but still: it is quite easy to change your way of life for a single day. You can wait one day to wash your clothes, you can work one day from home to avoid using cab, you can make the extra effort to close the tap while brushing your teeth on that day... but would you be able to keep it up longer?

We have to change our way of life on the long term to really reduce our impact on the environment. So what about creating an Earth Week? It could be great fun and really have a positive impact.

We could have something like:

You choose one area where you think you could easily reduce your impact on environment for example transportation or electricity consumption or water consumption.
For two weeks before the Earth Week, you monitor your usage on this area (eg check the electricity or water meters or collect your taxi/gas bills) to know how much you really use.
You commit on a change you are willing to make (eg: cutting your cab/car usage by half, lower your water consumption by 20%).
During Earth Week you stick to this commitment.
At the end of the week, you can decide to stick to this commitment for the rest of the year!

I would love to do that. What about you?

Speech tonight at Cheung Kong GSB

2009-04-27T02:24:49+00:00

Just to let you know, I'll be speaking tonight at a panel organized at the Cheung Kong GSB in Beijing. The topic of the panel is:
"Net Capitalists : Making Money Online - A Panel Discussion

Three Beijing-based professionals talk about their entrepreneurial
experiences using the web to make profit and give you tips on starting
out on your own commercial online adventure."

The panel is part of the Cheung Kong Open Lecture Series. It starts at 7pm, in Oriental Plaza E3, 12th floor (subway Dongdan on line 1 and line 5). Free.

Where to get your mask?

2009-04-03T10:42:49+00:00

In addition to our online catalogue, the products will be more and more available in regular shops.
For now, you can find some Respro masks in the following stores:

Beijing, Dongcheng - Lama Temple: Natooke is foreign owned and managed with fluent English, Chinese, German, Italian and French staff. Natooke is the only fixed-gear bike and juggling store in China.

Beijing, CBD and Shunyi: World Health Store is foreign owned and managed with fluent English & Chinese staff. Also available in store is the biggest array of imported health, vitamins, sports supplements in all of China.

Beijing, Haidian district: Merida Bicycle shop. Chinese service only.
Click here to find how to get to these stores .

Leave of absence

2009-03-31T16:36:25+00:00

There has been a long time since I last blogged. The reason is not that I am not interested about environment anymore (I have actually been answering to comments and to requests for Respro masks since September), I have just been busy with other things. In the meantime, I have been interested, annoyed, touched by many topics regarding environment. I'll try to catch up in the coming weeks!
Here are few of the things I was busy with over the last few months:

Establishing a sustainable business in China: I am commited to bring solutions against pollution to individuals. I did it through this blog since 2006, but to be able to do it on a sustainable way, I wanted to be able to live from it. I registered a proper company in China (it's not so easy, believe me!) and I now have a fully fledged import-export WFOE. I am able to bring more ideas and products to the market!
Linking French companies. I care for the environment but I also care for my community, French companies in China. I've worked a lot on that in the last 2 years and in January, we hold a great Forum to help French companies working together. Big Challenge, big achievement: Forum Travailler Ensemble (fr) .
Representing French companies: to continue my involvement with French business community, I am now member of the Board of the French Chamber in China. It's a great place to bring positive change!

With all these commitments, I'll definitely stay a few more years in Beijing, despite the pollution ;) Keep in touch!

Experimenting clean air

2008-09-24T10:14:14+00:00

Olympics and the Paralympics are over! Most anti-pollution restrictions were lifted last Sunday: traffic jams are covering roads again, tucks are back and factories can produce again... Air quality has remained quite good over the last few days but we can expect pollution to come back to its pre-Olympics levels soon.

However, I believe not everything will be reverted to its initial status. At least one thing changed: residents of Beijing now know that their air is bad and that the current state is not normal. They knew it before, but they had not experienced it. After one month in a city with low air pollution all Beijingers cherish breathing in fresh air.

For example, it is a fairly good sign that a majority of Beijingers were supporting the idea of keeping the car restrictions after Olympics. Even though a majority of Beijingers do not have a car, it shows that they would be ready to accept tough measures for having a better air.

As the Olympics pressure on the government is fading off, people's aspirations for clean air could push environmental reforms forward!

Ozone and PM2.5 data in Beijing?

2008-08-11T10:44:20+00:00

I blogged yesterday about how international pressure helps Beijing improving its air. Today I found this announcement : Beijing might start to monitor ozone and very fine particle matters (PM2.5) starting from next year.

Ozone is harmful for our health but there is no data available now. Having a daily monitoring of ozone would help people avoiding pollution peaks. It would also encourage Beijing municipality to take measures against ozone pollution.

Having PM2.5 data would also be interesting as particle matters are the main pollutants in Beijing. PM2.5 concentration is important as those fine particles are the most harmful for human health. Knowing both PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations would give us a more precise overview of the situation.

Let's hope Beijing officials will not forget this promise after August 24th!

The green side of Olympics

2008-08-10T15:47:04+00:00

I usually see the dark side of air pollution in Beijing: the data! The reason is that air in Beijing is not good compared with international standards. It is a fact that on most days air in Beijing would be considered as bad in European cities.

However, if I step back and have a look at the general context I am impressed by the efforts Beijing made to curb the emissions and by its successes in controlling the pollution. It is amazing that with more than 10% yearly growth over the last 7 years, SO2 & CO levels have been significantly reduced and NO2 & particle concentrations have been stabilized.

The measures that have been taken are really bold and I am sure no developped country would have been able to implement them. As it might be hard to understand for people not living in China, here below are just few of the measures taken to modernize transportation:

Replacement of old and polluting taxis (77.5% of Beijing taxis in 2001),
Opening of 4 new subway lines in the last 10 months,
Drop of public transportation price in 2007 (33% to 60% drop on subway fare),
Replacement of many old buses by comfortable and ecological buses...

Thanks to these measures the use of public transportation is now cheap and comfortable. People can let their cars at home and commute with mass transport. It's good for our air and for the people!

For sure, air in Beijing is not good yet. But I think it would be much worse if the Olympics were not here: the international pressure helped Beijing to improve the environmental situation.

However, more efforts need to be made to achieve a good air quality and I hope the current momentum will be sufficient to stay on this positive trend.

Anti-pollution measures, 5 days after

2008-07-25T11:18:35+00:00

The new anti-pollution measures for Olympics started last Sunday. As you might already know, the main measures are:

Reduction of traffic: cars with odd plates are allowed on odd days, cars with even plates on even days, old and very polluting cars have been taken away from roads,
Reduction of industrial emissions: heavy polluting industries have to stop during Olympics, others should reduce their emissions by at least 30%,
Freeze of construction sites to reduce dust and trucks...

As pollution is generated by human activity, if human activity is reduced dramatically, air pollution should rapidly fade off. However, since 3 days the pollution in Beijing is quite visible: a white smog is covering the city.

Smog come from three main factors: car emissions (nitrogen oxides ), volatile organic compounds and sun. Those three factors react with oxygen to produce ozone and particles . Ozone is a risk for athletes as it can aggravate or reveal asthma and reduce lung capacity by up to 20%. It is maybe not a health hazard, but athletes might find it harder to break records.

One of the reasons for such bad air quality is the really light wind and the absence of rain. There has been no occasion for pollutants that were already in the air to be flushed away. Such weather conditions should last for at least 3 more days and we could keep the same kind of pollution a bit longer.

All we have to hope is a heavy rain with strong winds to clear the skies in time for Olympics!

Pollution speech at Greening the Beige

2008-07-10T08:06:10+00:00

Greenig the Beige (GtB) is an innovative, eco-minded art collective dedicated to nurturing awareness on pertinent environmental issues. It is happening this week-end in Beijing.
The idea is to bring together people concerned about environmental issues, artists, volunteers in NGOs, experts and even me!

I will be giving a speech on Saturday July 12th at Yugongyishan at 8pm. Together with Vance Wagner (an expert on traffic policies) we will explain urban pollution, the impact on health and what we can do ourselves against it.
If you are interested, find out more on Greenig the Beige website !

New content on outdoor pollutants

2008-06-03T10:33:24+00:00

I have been writing this blog for more than 18 months already and I have gathered quite a significant knowledge base. However, blogging has one disadvantage: it is not easy to find the content wrote months ago! For example, did you remember this nice article on thermal inversion or this one on traffic policemen life expectancy .

Thus, I decided to make the information more directly available to the readers! The first step in this process is to publish the basic data I gathered along the way. You can know access a whole section on outdoor air pollution , listing the main pollutants, their origin and their impact on health. As usual, would you have any question, just comment the articles and I'll try my bet to bring you the answers!

Next, I will arrange all the data regarding the pollution indexes around the world (including pollution in Beijing).

How to reduce your environmental impact?

2008-05-14T00:30:00+00:00

It is important to know how to protect oneself against pollution, but a protection as effective as it can be will never replace the need to reduce our emissions for the sake of the environment.
Pollution is a solvable issue. But when it comes to environmental matters, everyone has to take action. So, for those of you who decided not to wait here are some advices on how to reduce your environmental impact.

There are actually many things you can do and here is only a start:

Watch the film An Inconvenient Truth from Al Gore, it gives a general overview of the state of our planet,
Avoid using your car by walking, biking or taking mass transit wherever possible, you'll reduce your exposure to pollution as well as reducing your impact on the environment,
Think and live green (many other ideas here)
Talk around you and convince your friends to do the same!

Conference on pollution tonight

2008-05-13T03:40:11+00:00

Tonight, I will give a speech on pollution in Beijing to the Beijing Linux Users Group.
It's open to anyone! It is a great opportunity to learn more about pollution and about open sources softwares.
7 pm on Dongzhimen Nei Avenue. More information on the BLUG website .

More pollution in a car than on a bicycle!

2008-05-05T08:57:43+00:00

If you live in Beijing or Shanghai, you probably already sat in a taxi during a smoggy day, watching people through the window riding their bicycle in the heavy pollution. Feeling safer in your cab, you pitied them since the air outside was so polluted.
Actually... you were more exposed to pollution than them!

A study shows that the mean concentration of fine particles inside a car could reach levels up to 25 times the WHO air quality guidelines. The main source of in-car air pollution is the vehicle in front of you since air intakes and exhaust pipes are located at the same level.

Even if driving with the windows closed and recirculating air settings could modestly reduce particle pollution exposure, it does not reduce most gaseous pollutants at all.

In terms of solutions, bicycle is definitely a better transportation mean in cities, since when you sit in a car:

you are in the middle of the car traffic and so the air you breathe is extremely polluted,
you stay longer in the traffic during rush hours,
even if it might not have a direct impact on your health, pollution is generated by the car.

While riding a bike, you are higher than the traffic, you are not riding directly inside it, you are not stuck during rush hours (so you reduce your time of exposure), and you don't generate pollution. Even though efforts can be harmful for your lungs, you are still less exposed to pollution than in a car.

According to ICTA's "In-car pollution" report: concentrations of benzene reach levels inside automobiles nearly two-and-a half times higher than in the air breathed by bicyclists.

A car doesn't protect you from pollution, it exposes you even more!

Sources: Le Journal du Dimanche (French), Xinhua, ICTA In-car pollution report

Are surgical masks effective against pollution?

2008-04-25T09:04:37+00:00

You might have seen many Chinese wearing surgical masks in the streets to protect themselves against pollution and you probably already asked yourself: are these masks really effective against air pollution?

These masks are not suited against pollution and the main reason is simple: these masks are designed to protect others from droplets you might spread.

When these masks are tested, the filtration is measured from the air you exhale and not the one you breathe in. Even if they can slightly reduce the risk of infections through droplets, they are definitely not a suitable solution against air pollution.

Quoting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

”Facemasks are loose-fitting, disposable masks that cover the nose and mouth. These include products labeled as surgical, dental, medical procedure, isolation, and laser masks.
Facemasks help stop droplets from being spread by the person wearing them. They also keep splashes or sprays from reaching the mouth and nose of the person wearing the facemask. They are not designed to protect you against breathing in very small particles. Facemasks should be used once and then thrown away in the trash.“

If you are sick during a flu pandemic you should definitely wear a facemask to prevent the spreading of the virus. But otherwise, if you are seeking effective protection against a polluted environment or a flu pandemy, you will definitely need a respiratory mask.

Measures for green Olympics

2008-04-17T06:23:54+00:00

"We will do everything possible to honor the promise"
(Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau)

Beijing announced last monday some measures that will be taken against pollution to bring "green games" to the athletes this summer. The measures will officially be in effect for two months (from July 20 to Sept. 20) and will include:

two-months halt of construction (even spray painting outdoors will be banned)

traffic restriction to ban half of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles during the Olympics (Aug. 8-24)

19 heavy polluting factories will be forced to either reduce pollution emissions by 30 percent or stop activity

Since most of Beijing's pollution is due to emissions from surrounding provinces, Du Shaozhong also mentionned that some of these measures will also take effect in five provinces and municipalities around Beijing (Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Inner Mongolia).

During the press conference, Du Shaozhong also said:

"Just tell everybody they don't have to worry."

Well, I guess athletes and tourists don't have to worry for the games period, but what about Beijingers like me who are still exposed to heavy pollution everyday?

Sources: International Herald Tribune, Aujourd'hui la Chine (article in French)

A leap forward!

2008-03-27T08:06:29+00:00

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!

Sandstorms also caused by human activity?

2008-03-14T10:13:12+00:00

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.

Beijing's most polluted day so far this year...

2008-03-11T03:00:13+00:00

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).

Happy Chinese New Year!

2008-02-05T21:23:00+00:00

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!

If you can't get the air cleaner, just change the way you measure!

2008-02-02T20:52:00+00:00

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!

Shanghai comparator up, Beijing comparator still down...

2008-01-30T20:52:19+00:00

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...

Comparator down for maintenance!

2008-01-02T16:05:53+00:00

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.