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  • Beijing air pollution

    From a recent news article:

    Air pollution in the Chinese capital Beijing has become so heavy that the lifespan of residents is being shortened by as many as five or six years, according to a report.
    Chinese officials seek to downplay the problem, but emissions from coal-fired power plants, industrial emissions and motor vehicle exhaust fumes in and around Beijing are literally choking the city of 20 million people.

    During one recent spell of particularly heavy pollution, hundreds of inbound and outbound flights were canceled due to poor visibility, long stretches of highways were shut down, stores sold out of face masks, and residents were urged to avoid any outdoor activity.
    A report in the English-language China Daily said the lung cancer rate in Beijing has increased by 60 percent in the past 10 years even though the smoking rate did not change.

    Avraham Ebenstein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has conducted a study of pollution in Beijing and said: “We estimate about five to six years of foregone life expectancy over the long haul for living in Beijing relative to [China’s] southern cities.”

    And Steven Andrews, an American environmental consultant who published a report on the website China Dialogue, said that “if Beijing’s fine particulate concentration even reached the polluted levels of Los Angeles, life expectancy may increase by over five years.”

    Chinese officials routinely report that the pollution levels are safe because they take into account only large particles, up to 10 microns in diameter, and don’t include fine particles, which make up much of the city’s pollution, The New York Times reported.

    But gauges at the American Embassy in Beijing do measure those fine particles, and the embassy reports that the air was unhealthy more than 80 percent of the time in the last two years — while Beijing officials claim good or excellent air quality 80 percent of the time.

    An NPR correspondent who lives in Beijing had an expert analyze the air inside her residence and found that the amount of fine particulate matter was five times higher than the level considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and in America would be considered to be verging on “hazardous.”
    Chinese officials have blamed climatic conditions for what they describe as “heavy fog,” according to NPR.

    But it is telling that a Chinese manufacturer said more than 200 of its expensive air purifiers are in the homes and offices of China’s top leaders.
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