AIR POLLUTION IN CHINA

According to the 2016 air quality report by China’s environmental ministry, of the 338 Chinese cities at prefecture level and above, 254 had an average air quality that failed to meet national standards. While that's 11 less than 2015 it still means that over three-fourths of China's major cities are more polluted than even the Chinese government, whose standards are below international standars, thinks is safe. [Source: China's environmental ministry, Shanghaiist, January 23, 2017]

Air pollution and carbon emissions in China have mainly been attributable to coal burning and industrial production during the early stage of economic development. In urban areas, especially megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai, emissions from vehicles have become an increasing problem. In recent years, it has been observed that the emissions of long-regulated sulfur dioxide (SO2) and total suspended particulates (TSP, including particulate matter [PM1), have passed their peak and are diminishing. The situation of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ground-level ozone (O3) concentration, however, is worsening. Regional air pollution problems are becoming significant. Sometimes vast regions, such as all of eastern and central China, are under very high concentrations of PM2.5 and O3. [Source: Laney Zhang, Foreign Law Specialist, Library of Congress Law Library, Legal Reports, June 2018]

Many of China’s smog-filled cities are ringed with heavy industry, metal smelters, and coal-fired power plants, all critical to keeping the fast-growing economy going even as they spew tons of carbon, metals, gases, and soot into the air. The air pollution and smog in Beijing and Shanghai are sometimes so bad that the airports are shut down because of poor visibility. The air quality of Beijing is 16 times worse than New York City. Sometimes you can't even see building a few blocks away and blue sky is a rare sight. In Shanghai sometimes you can't see the street from the 5th floor window. Fresh air tours to the countryside are very popular.

While air quality has improved somewhat in eastern cities such as Beijing in recent years it has gotten worse on other. According to Greenpeace China's air pollution is moving to the country's west. Provinces in central and western China, including Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan, are now among those with the worst PM2.5 levels in the country, PM2.5 a measure referring to particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that are hazardous to health. [Source: Reuters, April 22, 2015]

Only 1 percent of the China’s hundreds of million city dwellers breath air considered safe by European Union standards according to a 2010 World Bank study. Air pollution has traditionally been particularly bad in the rust belt areas of northeastern China. A study done by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the amount of airborne suspended particulates in northern China are almost 20 times what WHO considers a safe level. Even in remote areas air pollution levels can be alarmingly high. On the nice new highway between Urumqi and Turpan in Xinjiang it s sometimes difficult to make out the wonderful scenery because brownish smoke produced by natural gas refineries and coal plants.

Websites and Sources: China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environmental Protection (MEP) english.mee.gov.cn EIN News Service’s China Environment News einnews.com/china/newsfeed-china-environment Wikipedia article on Environment of China ; Wikipedia ; China Environmental Protection Foundation (a Chinese Government Organization) cepf.org.cn/cepf_english ; ; China Environmental News Blog (last post 2011) china-environmental-news.blogspot.com ;Global Environmental Institute (a Chinese non-profit NGO) geichina.org ; Greenpeace East Asia greenpeace.org/china/en ; China Digital Times Collection of Articles chinadigitaltimes.net ; International Fund for China’s Environment ifce.org .

Living with Air Pollution in China

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from the Economist Edward Wong wrote in the New York Times: “ Increasingly, air pollution is changing everyday life. Face masks are becoming more ubiquitous in the cities, and some affluent parents increasingly choose schools more for their air filtration systems than for their academics. The environment is emerging as a potent political issue.” [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, March 21, 2013]

Here in Beijing, high-tech air purifiers are as coveted as luxury sedans. Soon after I was posted to Beijing, in 2008, I set up a couple of European-made air purifiers used by previous correspondents. In early April, I took out one of the filters for the first time to check it: the layer of dust was as thick as moss on a forest floor. It nauseated me. I ordered two new sets of filters to be picked up in San Francisco; those products are much cheaper in the United States. [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, August 3, 2013]

"Every morning, when I roll out of bed, I check an app on my cellphone that tells me the air quality index as measured by the United States Embassy, whose monitoring device is near my home. I want to see whether I need to turn on the purifiers and whether my wife and I can take our daughter outside. Most days, she ends up housebound. Statistics released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection revealed that air quality in Beijing was deemed unsafe for more than 60 percent of the days in the first half of 2013. I want my daughter to grow up appreciating the outdoors — sunsets and birdcalls and the smell of grass or the shape of clouds. That will be impossible if we live for many more years in Beijing. Even with my adult-size lungs, I limit my time outdoors. Though I ran on the banks of the Tigris River while in Baghdad and competed in two marathons before moving to China, I am hesitant about doing long-distance training for that kind of race here.

Hannah Beech wrote in the New York Times: “I used to joke that we left Beijing in 2014 as pollution refugees. I had tired of strapping little face masks on our boys just so they could commute to school. On many days they couldn’t play outside at all. “The smiling panda patterns on their masks couldn’t disguise the fact that fine particulate matter is particularly corrosive for children’s lungs. We moved from Beijing to Shanghai just as the air there got worse. A couple of years ago, I didn’t realize that our dishwasher had caught fire and was sending smoke throughout the house because everything was already so murky from the pollution. “For years, Beijing residents spoke of fog rather than smog. When the reality finally hit, the government considered some outlandish ideas, like using giant fans to blow the pollution out of town. “In China, pollution became a proxy for discontent that could not be expressed in other ways. People began to question the implicit pact made with their authoritarian leaders: We’ll improve your material life, but don’t question how you are ruled. “But what if double-digit growth rates result in a poisoned earth and air? Many Chinese began a national rethink. [Source: Hannah Beech, New York Times, January 30, 2019]

Anger and Outrage in China Over Air Pollution

Edward Wong wrote in the New York Times in 2013, “many Chinese have expressed fury and frustration over the surging levels of air pollution, especially in the north, which in January had record levels of particulate matter. Pollution levels have remained high this summer, and many foreigners and middle- or upper-class Chinese with children are looking to leave the country rather than tolerate the health risks. There has been growing outrage in Chinese cities over what many say are untenable levels of air pollution. Cities across the north hit record levels in January, and official Chinese newspapers ran front-page articles on the surge — what some foreigners call the “airpocalypse” — despite earlier limits on such discussion by propaganda officials. [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, July 8, 2013]

Jennifer Duggan wrote in The Guardian, “On the Chinese social media site Weibo, many users complained about the pollution in Harbin and shared their concerns. One user, Wei Bang Zhu, wrote"someone should take responsibility for the smog…the price of pursuing high-speed development is that people end up being fed with smog. To venture out in an environment like this would be equivalent to teasing about one's own health and life." Another, Justop88, said: "Too horrible, it's like the end of the world in American movies."References to "feed people with smog" have become popular on Weibo and is a sarcastic play on the expression "serve the people" as the two have a similar pronunciation. [Source: Jennifer Duggan, The Guardian, October 23, 2013]

David Pierson wrote in the Los Angeles Times, For a long time “state media was loathe to use the word "pollution," opting instead for the euphemism "fog." But popular pressure is building, making it harder for policymakers to ignore the foul air in many of China's largest cities. After the staggeringly bad bout of air pollution in January 2013 , micro-bloggers took to posting pictures of themselves online wearing masks. Some held handwritten signs that read, "I don't want to be a human vacuum cleaner." The phrase became the top-trending topic on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo, attracting several million hits. "Return my blue sky and white clouds," wrote a blogger named Xiao Yu. "If economic development needs to come with the price of such heavy pollution, I would rather go back to the 1980s." [Source: David Pierson, Los Angeles Times, January 26, 2013]

A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center before the 2008 Olympics found that 74 percent of the Chinese interviewed said they were concerned about air pollution and things have gotten much worse since then. In 2014, Chinese media reported that a man in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province near Beijing, had sued the local environmental protection bureau for failing to rein in the smog. Li Guixin filed the lawsuit asking the municipal environment protection bureau "perform its duty to control air pollution according to the law", the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported. Li is also seeking compensation for the pollution. "Besides the threat to our health, we've also suffered economic losses, and these losses should be borne by the government and the environmental departments because the government is the recipient of corporate taxes, it is a beneficiary," he told the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily. “Li told the newspaper that he had bought an air purifier, masks and a treadmill, but none had helped him to overcome the pernicious health effects of the smog. He is seeking RMB 10,000 (£1,000) in compensation. "I want show every citizen that we are real victims of this polluted air, which hurts us both from a health perspective and economically," he said. [Source: Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing, The Guardian, February 25, 2014]

Benefits of Severe Air Pollution in China?

In December 2013, China Central Television (CCTV) posted an essay on its website that outlined the “five surprising benefits” of the country’s severe air pollution: 1) it unites people, 2) makes them more equal, 3, 4) raises citizen awareness and knowledge and 5) leads to an elevated sense of humor. The essay went on to note that citizens unite around a common complaint that doesn’t discriminate based on age, residence or income.

The Wall Street Journal reported: “While it wasn’t clear whether the piece was meant to be genuine or satirical, neither official media outlets nor members of China’s online community took too kindly to the broadcaster’s apparent attempt at putting a positive spin on the toxic air. “It’s beyond one’s imagination to find ‘positive energy’ to unite the people in smog,” the Beijing Times said. “But for some people, one way to show their existence is to treat a funeral as happy event and find pleasure in disasters.” [Source: Brittany Hite and Liu Jing China Real Time blog, Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2013]

China’s bloggers offered up to CCTV their own suggestions of benefits from the pollution. “Add this to the list: the opportunity to go abroad!” one user of Sina Weibo, China’s biggest Twitter-like microblogging platform, wrote. “In the smog, people cannot be seen clearly, so everyone looks more beautiful because all their imperfections are hidden by the smog,” another quipped. Social media users also had took exception to a report in the Global Times, a nationalist-leaning tabloid published by the Communist Party flagship newspaper People’s Daily, that argued the country’s smoky skies benefitted China militarily by interfering with enemy surveillance and weapons guidance systems.

Kinds of Air Pollution in China

Air pollutants include sulfates, ozone, soot, organic hazardous material, heavy metals, acid aerosols black carbon, cement dust, desert dust and mercury. Black carbon, the soot produced by cars, stoves, factories, and crop burning are a major component of Chinese haze. The small diameter of the carbon particles means they can more easily be inhaled and can penetrate deep inside the lungs, providing absorption sites for secondary toxins that would otherwise be cleared. This compounds the danger, making black carbon an especially potent risk factor for lung disease and premature death. Judged as the most dangerous for health, suspended particulates are caused mainly by coal and car exhaust. In the cities it is also caused by construction. In the spring it is caused by dust from the sand and dust storms in the Gobi Desert

Particulate matter, which includes dust, soot aerosol particles less than 10 microns in size is a major source of air pollution. Particulate levels are measured in micrograms by cubic meter of air. In United States levels about 50 micrograms are considered unsafe. In Europe the levels are around 40 micrograms. In Beijing that average level often exceed 150.

China is the world’s leading source of sulfur dioxide. Levels of the pollutant in the air in the 2000s were comparable to Japan in the 1970s when air pollution was a major problem there. Emissions of sulfur dioxide from coal and fuel oil can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as acid rain. Sulfur dioxide emissions alone are though to cause damage equal to 12 percent of China’s GNP. China's sulfur dioxide levels are not as high as they once were.

China’s emissions of nitrogen oxide — traditionally one the main causes of urban smog — increased 3.8 percent a year 1980 to 2005. Nitrogen oxide is released by power plants, heavy industry and cars. Nitrogen oxide emissions in China have been reduced. Nitrogen dioxide is not a serious problem. Levels of the pollutant in China are comparable to those in Japan. Even so levels in Beijing rose 50 percent between 1996 and 2006.

There are also problems with ozone and paticulates measuring more than 2.5 microns (See Below). Ozone forms when nitrogen oxides combine with hydrocarbons emitted by vehicles and refineries. It affects photosynthesis. High ozone levels recorded in the lower Yangtze basin are thought to be linked o crops yields that are 25 percent lower than those in unpolluted areas.

PM2.5 Pollution in China and South Asia

In 2019, nearly 90 percent of the world’s 200 cities with the highest concentrations of PM2.5 air pollution were located in China and India, with most of the remainder in Pakistan and Indonesia, according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report released by IQAir Group and Greenpeace. When population was taken into account, Bangladesh had the highest national average PM2.5 concentration, followed by Pakistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan and India. China ranked 11th. [Source: Marlowe Hood, AFP, February 25, 2020]

PM2.5 refers to fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter, approximately one-thirtieth the width of a human hair. These particles can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, increasing the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, including asthma, lung cancer, heart attacks and strokes. PM2.5 pollution comes from sources including dust and sandstorms, agriculture, industry, wildfires and the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas.

Among cities with populations of 10 million or more, New Delhi had the highest PM2.5 concentration in 2019, followed by Lahore in Pakistan, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Kolkata in India, Linyi and Tianjin in China, and Jakarta in Indonesia. Wuhan, Chengdu and Beijing were also among the most polluted megacities. The IQAir report was based on data from nearly 5,000 cities worldwide. It estimated that 90 percent of the global population was exposed to air that exceeded recommended health guidelines.

China’s average urban PM2.5 concentration declined by 20 percent between 2018 and 2019, but the country still accounted for 117 of the world’s 200 most polluted cities. Almost all Chinese cities included in the report exceeded the World Health Organization’s guideline for PM2.5. About 53 percent also exceeded China’s national standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter for a 24-hour average. The World Health Organization guideline cited in the report was 25 micrograms per cubic meter for a 24-hour average.

India also recorded widespread PM2.5 pollution above World Health Organization guidelines, although air quality improved in many areas in 2019. The report found that 98 percent of monitored Indian cities experienced improvements in air quality compared with the previous year. Among the 36 high-income countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, South Korea had the highest PM2.5 pollution, with 105 cities among the world’s 1,000 most polluted. Poland and Italy accounted for 39 and 31 cities, respectively, in that group.

Climate change can increase exposure to PM2.5 by contributing to more severe wildfires and dust storms, including those associated with expanding desertification. Air pollution has also been linked to reduced cognitive performance, labor productivity and educational outcomes. Although the relationship between air pollution and lung cancer is well established, cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and strokes, account for a substantial share of pollution-related premature deaths.

PM2.5 Pollution in China

In 2019, nearly 90 percent of the 200 cities with the world's highest levels of deadly micro-pollution — PM2.5 — were in China and India. Taking population into account China ranked 11th according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report, jointly released by IQAir Group and Greenpeace. PM2.5 — Particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in diameter, roughly 1/30 the width of a human hair — is the most dangerous type of airborne pollution. These microscopic flecks are small enough to enter the bloodstream via the respiratory system, leading to asthma, lung cancer and heart disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) most of the seven million premature deaths attributed by to air pollution are caused by PM2.5 particles, which originate in sandstorms, agriculture, industry, wildfires and especially the burning of fossil fuels. [Source: Marlowe Hood, AFP, February 25, 2020]

China’s Struggle with PM2.5 Pollution

Sharon Lafraniere wrote in the New York Times: PM2.5 is the “most pernicious measure of urban air pollution and among the most hazardous because the particles easily penetrate lungs and enter the bloodstream. Caused by dust or emissions from vehicles, coal combustion, factories and construction sites, they increases the risk of cardiovascular ailments, respiratory disease and lung cancer if people are chronically exposed to them. Car and truck exhaust is a major source of fine particulate pollution, a particular problem in Beijing, where the number of registered cars has skyrocketed from 3.5 million in 2008 to 5 million in 2011 and 6 million in 2020 The Chinese government began monitored exposure levels in 20 cities and 14 other sites in the mid 2000s but has kept the data secret. In the summer of 2010 the American Embassy in Beijing began posting PM2.5 readings on it website, and only after that did the Chinese government start doing the same.

While China has made gains on some other airborne toxins, the PM 2.5 data is far from reassuring. In an unreleased December 2010 report relying on government data, the World Bank said average annual PM 2.5 concentrations in northern Chinese cities exceeded American limits by five to six times as much, and two to four times as much in southern Chinese cities. Nine of 13 major cities failed more than half the time to meet even the initial annual mean target for developing countries set by the World Health Organization. Wang Yuesi, the chief air-pollution scientist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, estimated this month that Beijing needed at least 20 years to reach that goal

Wang told Outlook Weekly , a magazine owned by China’s official news agency, Xinhua, that Beijing’s PM 2.5 concentrations have been increasing by 3 to 4 percent annually from 1998 to 2010. He said the finer particulates absorbed more light, explaining why Beijing so often is enveloped in a haze thick enough to obscure even nearby buildings. Air pollution in the city and in nearby Tianjin is so severe that “something must be done to control it,” he wrote on his blog . Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told China Daily month that without intervention, PM 2.5 particulates would replace smoking as China’s top cause of lung cancer. Beijing health experts told the newspaper that while smoking rates were flat, the city’s lung-cancer rate had risen 60 percent in the past decade, probably as a result of air pollution.

PM 2.5 particles are so fine that they can lodge deeply in human lungs. "The smaller the particle, the more hazardous it is for public health," Shi Yuankai, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Cancer Hospital, told the China Daily. Protective measures like wearing face masks barely help because the particles are too small," he said.

“Beijing officials have said that vehicle emissions account for 22 percent of the PM 2.5, and another 40 percent is from coal-fired factories in Beijing and nearby provinces. In February 2013, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued stricter factory emissions standards for six coal-burning industries. First on the list is the power industry, which accounts for about half the coal consumption in China.[Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, March 21, 2013]

Air Quality in China Is Improving

Several Chinese cities recorded substantial improvements in air quality between 2017 and 2019, according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report published by IQAir AirVisual. Beijing, which had previously been known for severe episodes of smog, fell from 84th to 199th place on the report’s ranking of the world’s most polluted cities. Shanghai and other major Chinese cities also recorded improvements. China’s progress contrasted with persistent severe pollution in many Indian cities. [Source: Iain Marlow and Hannah Dormido, Bloomberg, February 25, 2020]

The improvements followed extensive government measures to reduce air pollution. Chinese authorities implemented stricter controls on industrial emissions, coal use and other major sources of particulate pollution, supported by extensive monitoring and enforcement. The measures were implemented through a centralized system that enabled national and local authorities to allocate resources and enforce environmental requirements. Air-quality monitoring stations also provided detailed information that could be used to track changes in pollution levels.

Despite these improvements, air pollution remained a significant problem in parts of China. Cities in the western Xinjiang region, including Kashgar and Hotan, were among the world’s most polluted in 2019. Pollution also continued to be affected by industrial activity, fossil-fuel use, transportation and other emissions sources. The improvement in major cities therefore represented progress rather than the elimination of China’s air-pollution problem.

China’s experience demonstrated that sustained government action could reduce urban particulate pollution. The country’s progress occurred while several other Asian cities experienced increases in PM2.5 concentrations. However, continued reductions required ongoing controls on emissions and fossil-fuel use, as well as effective monitoring and enforcement. Air pollution remained a major environmental and public-health issue across Asia despite improvements in some of China’s largest cities.

Unreliability of Chinese Pollution Data and Information

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Whether government statistics on pollution are reliable is another issue. Sharon Lafraniere wrote in the New York Times. While some argue that the release of ever more detailed data makes fudging ever harder, Mr. Andrews, the environmental researcher, contends that the government systematically manipulated data and standards to create more “blue sky” days. Some experts contend that the government shies away from epidemiological studies on pollution’s health impact. “They are really unwilling to match it to the health data because that would be much more alarming,” said one specialist who spoke anonymously for fear of angering Chinese officials. “They want to get the counts down first.”

Kyodo reported: Many Beijing residents worry about discrepancies between China's official air quality readings and air testing conducted at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which conducts its own measurements. While China's national environmental monitoring center reported that Beijing's air was slightly polluted Monday, the U.S. Embassy, which measures smaller particulates, or those less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, rated it as "hazardous.' [Source: Kyodo, December 6, 2011]

China's pollution monitors have been struggling to maintain credibility since a clear run of blue-sky days during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games when factories were forced to temporarily close and car use was severely restricted. "The government has created a story that air pollution has improved, but actually it has not," Steven Andrews, a Beijing-based environmental consultant, told Kyodo News. "China actually has stringent environmental regulations. But if they are not being followed in the capital, you can just imagine how bad it must be in other areas," he said.

The Beijing government has even criticized health experts for taking health precautions to deal with the air pollution. When an American doctor at Beijing United Family Hospital recommended this month on his blog that people wear face masks, the Communist Party-affiliated Global Times newspaper ran an article rebuking him. The newspaper quoted an anonymous doctor at Peking University People's Hospital as saying, "The suggestion to wear air masks will make trouble out of nothing, as we've had polluted air for a long time, and we shouldn't be living with an American standard." [Source: Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2011]

Image Sources: 1) University of Washington; 2) Impact Lab; 3,5 ) Natalie Behring, Bloomberg, Environmental News.; 4) University of Utah; 6) Environmental News; 7) David Wolman Blogspot; 8) NASA; 9) Julie Chao http://juliechao.com/pix-china.html ; You Tube

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated June 2022