Beijing Air Pollution Hits All Time Record

[Broomstick]

Apparently there are worse things than "crazy bad":

BEIJING — One Friday more than two years ago, an air-quality monitoring device atop the United States Embassy in Beijing recorded data so horrifying that someone in the embassy called the level of pollution “Crazy Bad” in an infamous Twitter post. That day the Air Quality Index, which uses standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, had crept above 500, which was supposed to be the top of the scale.

So what phrase is appropriate to describe Saturday’s jaw-dropping reading of 755 at 8 p.m., when all of Beijing looked like an airport smokers’ lounge? Though an embassy spokesman said he did not immediately have comparative data, Beijing residents who follow the Twitter feed said the Saturday numbers appeared to be the highest recorded since the embassy began its monitoring system in 2008.

The embassy’s @BeijingAir Twitter feed said the level of toxicity in the air was “Beyond Index,” the terminology for levels above 500; the “Crazy Bad” label was used just once, in November 2010, before it was quickly deleted by the embassy from the Twitter feed. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, levels between 301 and 500 are “Hazardous,” meaning people should avoid all outdoor activity. The World Health Organization has standards that judge a score above 500 to be more than 20 times the level of particulate matter in the air deemed safe.

In online conversations, Beijing residents tried to make sense of the latest readings.

“This is a historic record for Beijing,” Zhao Jing, a prominent Internet commentator who uses the pen name Michael Anti, wrote on Twitter. “I’ve closed the doors and windows; the air purifiers are all running automatically at full power.”

Other Beijing residents online described the air as “postapocalyptic,” “terrifying” and “beyond belief.”

The municipal government reported levels as high as 500 on Saturday evening from some monitoring stations. The Chinese system does not report numbers beyond 500. Nevertheless, readings in central Beijing throughout the day were at the extreme end of what is considered hazardous according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency standards. (By comparison, the air quality index in New York City, using the same standard, was 19 at 6 a.m. on Saturday.)

Pollution levels in Beijing had been creeping up for days, and readings were regularly surging above 300 by midweek. The interior of the gleaming Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport was filled with a thick haze on Thursday. The next day, people working in office towers in downtown Beijing found it impossible to make out skyscrapers just a few blocks away. Some city residents scoured stores in search of masks and air filters.

Still, there was little warning that the United States Embassy reading would jump above 700 on Saturday. Some people speculated that the monitoring system, which measures fine particles called PM 2.5 because they are 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller, might have malfunctioned once it got beyond 500.

But Nolan Barkhouse, an embassy spokesman, said the monitor was operating correctly.

It was unclear exactly what was responsible for the rise in levels of particulate matter, beyond the factors that regularly sully the air here. Factories operating in neighboring Hebei Province ring this city of more than 20 million. The number of cars on Beijing’s streets has been multiplying at an astounding rate. And Beijing sits on a plain flanked by hills and escarpments that can trap pollution on days with little wind. Meanwhile, one person hiking at the Great Wall in the hills at Mutianyu, north of Beijing, took photographs of crisp blue skies there.

Xinhua, the state news agency, reported on Dec. 31 that Beijing’s air quality had improved for 14 years straight, and the level of major pollutants had decreased. A municipal government spokesman told Xinhua that the annual average concentration of PM 10, or particles 10 microns in diameter or smaller, had dropped by 4 percent in 2012, compared with one year earlier.

Chinese officials prefer to publicly release air pollution measurements that give only levels of PM 10, although foreign health and environmental experts say PM 2.5 can be deadlier and more important to track.

There has been a growing outcry among Chinese for municipal governments to release fuller air quality data, in part because of the United States Embassy Twitter feed. As a result, Beijing began announcing PM 2.5 numbers last January. Major Chinese cities have had the equipment to track those levels, but had refused for a long time to release the data.

The existence of the embassy’s machine and the @BeijingAir Twitter feed have been a diplomatic sore point for Chinese officials. In July 2009, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official, Wang Shu’ai, told American diplomats to halt the Twitter feed, saying that the data “is not only confusing but also insulting,” according to a State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks. Mr. Wang said the embassy’s data could lead to “social consequences.”

Yes, it's a little murky in Beijing:


From the BBC:

Air pollution in the Chinese capital Beijing has reached levels judged as hazardous to human health.

Readings from both official and unofficial monitoring stations suggested that Saturday's pollution has soared past danger levels outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The air tastes of coal dust and car fumes, two of the main sources of pollution, says a BBC correspondent.

Economic growth has left air quality in many cities notoriously poor.

A heavy smog has smothered Beijing for many days, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas, in the capital.

By Saturday afternoon it was so thick you could see just a few hundred metres in the city centre, our correspondent says, with tower blocks vanishing into the greyness.
Hazy view

Even indoors the air looked hazy, he says.
Pedestrians wearing masks in Bejing on 12 January. Some people are wearing masks

WHO guidelines say average concentrations of the tiniest pollution particles - called PM2.5 - should be no more than 25 microgrammes per cubic metre.

Air is unhealthy above 100 microgrammes. At 300, all children and elderly people should remain indoors.

Official Beijing city readings on Saturday suggested pollution levels over 400. Unofficial reading from a monitor at the US embassy recorded 800.

Once inhaled, the tiny particles can cause respiratory infections, as well as increased mortality from lung cancer and heart disease.

Last year Chinese authorities warned the US embassy not to publish its data. But the embassy said the measurements were for the benefit of embassy personnel and were not citywide.

This is from the Xinhua website:

BEIJING, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's meteorological authority issued a yellow alert for fog that continued to shroud the country's central and eastern regions on Sunday.

The heavy fog has affected flights at airports in Beijing, Hebei, Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Sichuan, with visibility reduced to around 100 meters at some airports.

Ten flights had been canceled and five flights delayed by more than an hour at the Beijing Capital International Airport as of 11 a.m. Sunday, the airport said.

The fog has also disrupted traffic on some highways in Hebei, Sichuan, Hunan, Shandong and Liaoning provinces, according to the road network center under the Ministry of Transport.

The center said traffic will be resumed later in the day.

The Central Meteorological Center forecast that the north China plains, middle and western regions along the Yellow and Huai rivers, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and south China will see fog on Sunday.

On Monday, light and moderate snow will fall in the northern part of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, with some areas expecting heavy snow, the center said.

Meanwhile, a cold front will lower temperatures by 4 to 8 degrees Celsius in China's northern and eastern regions from Sunday to Wednesday, according to the center.

It makes me wonder what a "red alert" would be like. Or maybe a "brown alert", it seems a more appropriate color. I mean, c'mon, if the pollution is thick enough to disrupt road traffic You Have A Problem.

This just can't be healthy:

[Zaune]

It's a real Beijing particular... If this doesn't motivate them to tighten up on the emissions rules then nothing will, because like London in the middle of the last century, the people in charge have to put up with it as well as the hoi polloi.

[Broomstick]

Unlike historical London, though, we now have air purification units small/cheap enough to be privately owned. The rich can have filtered air in their homes and workplaces, and wear masks out of doors, while the poor can simply suffer.

[Lusankya]

As the articles say, Beijing's problem is that it is surrounded on three sides by mountains, and often suffers from a temperature inversion which prevents the pollution from being dispersed. It's also very dry, so you dont get much precipitation filtering the pollution paprticles out of the air either. And the city has a population of 22 million (about the same as Australia). Controlling pollution there is very hard. They already have the world's cheapest subway in terms of cost/distance, and they do have limitations on which cars can drive on which days.

The particular cause of this spike in pollution, however, could be fixed by an improvement in living standards. Is not a coincidence that this occurred over the weekend. See, during the week, people go to work in their modern heated offices, but on the weekend, they return to their homes - many of which are heated with older coal burners. That, combined with Beijing being pretty cold for the last couple of weeks, would create perfect conditions for pollution.

That said, Beijing will never have good air quality, unless it manages to cut its emissions down to what would be considered acceptable for a city a quarter of its size. It's in an absolutely shitty location for a city its size, and a shitty location for a city in general.

[Broomstick]

As the articles say, Beijing's problem is that it is surrounded on three sides by mountains, and often suffers from a temperature inversion which prevents the pollution from being dispersed. It's also very dry, so you dont get much precipitation filtering the pollution paprticles out of the air either.

While geography does have an effect - Los Angeles also suffers from similar circumstances as encircling mountains, temperature inversions, and dryness - that is not the sole reason for this. Other cities are similarly situated and have their issues regarding air quality but Beijing is far and away the worst offender these days.

Of course, high population mixed with coal burning are also factors here.

That said, Beijing will never have good air quality, unless it manages to cut its emissions down to what would be considered acceptable for a city a quarter of its size. It's in an absolutely shitty location for a city its size, and a shitty location for a city in general.

The location alone will continue to mean that it will never have the best air quality compared to other locations, just as LA will always have air problems as well, but I'm pretty sure significant improvements could be made here.

[PainRack]

I read some..... interesting essays on the problems Beijing had with dust storms in the past and said issues with desertification, as well as the current government attempts to stop this by building a line of trees north of the city.


It makes me wonder if some of the population problems might also be mitigated if more greenery was introduced into the city.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/41915

[Soontir C'boath]

Can't find the article anymore, but I recall reading how trees surrounding NYC grew faster than the ones in the city itself due to the pollution drifting away from it. I'd assume trees within city limits would certainly help Beijing in their case.

[Soontir C'boath]

^I take that back. I must've remembered wrong. Severely.

Trees within cities grow faster. In NYC, it's 8 times rural areas; Business Insider