Environmental News 4.8.13, Part VII: If You Want to Breathe In China - Well Go and Live in the Congo..or Brazil or...Australia. The air pollution is so bad in China that, if you wish to live in a city with acceptable air quality, there are only four places you can live…the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, the island city of Haikou, the coastal town of Zhoushan or the Pearl River Delta city of Huizhou. That’s it. No other major population centre in the country makes the cut, according to a new report by China’s environment ministry. Levels of airborne PM2.5—particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter—measured on average 76 micrograms per cubic meter across 74 large urban areas in China and that’s more than seven times the World Health Organization ‘s recommended exposure of less than 10 micrograms per cubic meter over the course of a year. The results, are grim, and calls for the government to improve air quality surged this past winter, when swaths of the country were blanketed by rarely seen air-pollution levels. Growing vehicle traffic and industrial output such as steel production, among a variety of other sources have contributed to rising PM 2.5 levels in recent years.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 21:17:24 +0000
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