Beijing smog

China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists

Air pollution now impeding photosynthesis and potentially wreaking havoc on country's food supply, experts warn

the Guardian,

26 Febraury, 2014

Chinese scientists have warned that the country's toxic air pollution is now so bad that it resembles a nuclear winter, slowing photosynthesis in plants – and potentially wreaking havoc on the country's food supply.

Beijing and broad swaths of six northern provinces have spent the past week blanketed in a dense pea-soup smog that is not expected to abate until Thursday. Beijing's concentration of PM 2.5 particles – those small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream – hit 505 micrograms per cubic metre on Tuesday night. The World Health Organisation recommends a safe level of 25.

The worsening air pollution has already exacted a significant economic toll, grounding flights, closing highways and keeping tourists at home. On Monday 11,200 people visited Beijing's Forbidden City, about a quarter of the site's average daily draw.

He Dongxian, an associate professor at China Agricultural University's College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, said new research suggested that if the smog persists, Chinese agriculture will suffer conditions "somewhat similar to a nuclear winter".

Buildings in the central business district in Guangzhou seen through the thick haze. Photograph: Alex Lee/Reuters

She has demonstrated that air pollutants adhere to greenhouse surfaces, cutting the amount of light inside by about 50% and severely impeding photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert light into life-sustaining chemical energy.

She tested the hypothesis by growing one group of chilli and tomato seeds under artificial lab light, and another under a suburban Beijing greenhouse. In the lab, the seeds sprouted in 20 days; in the greenhouse, they took more than two months. "They will be lucky to live at all," He told the South China Morning Post newspaper.

She warned that if smoggy conditions persist, the country's agricultural production could be seriously affected. "Now almost every farm is caught in a smog panic," she said.

A farmer turns soil to plant crops near a state-owned lead smelter in Tianying that has made much of the land uninhabitable. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters/Corbis

Early this month the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences claimed in a report that Beijing's pollution made the city almost "uninhabitable for human beings".

The Chinese government has repeatedly promised to address the problem, but enforcement remains patchy. In October, Beijing introduced a system of emergency measures if pollution levels remained hazardous for three days in a row, including closing schools, shutting some factories, and restricting the use of government cars.

People visiting the Olympic Park amid the thick haze in Beijing. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

According to China's state newswire Xinhua, 147 industrial companies in Beijing have cut or suspended production. Yet schools remained open and government cars remained on the road.

One person not put off by the smog was President Xi Jinping, who braved the pollution to make an unannounced visit to a trendy neighbourhood popular with tourists.

Dressed in a black jacket and trousers – and no facemask – Xi made a brief walkabout in Nanluoguxiang district last Thursday morning. The visit prompted approving coverage in Chinese news reports, but also mockery on social media sites. "Xi Jinping visits Beijing's Nanluoguxiang amid the smog: breathing together, sharing the fate," said a Xinhua headline.

Photos and shaky video footage apparently of Xi's visit ricocheted around Chinese social media sites. "Why isn't he wearing a facemask?" asked one Sina Weibo user. "Isn't it bad for his health?"

This week 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's lawyer, Wu Yufen, confirmed the lawsuit but refused to comment because of the sensitivity of the case. He said: "This is the first ever case of a citizen suing the government regarding the issue of air pollution. We're waiting for the judicial authority's response."

Diseased vegetables said to be caused by pollution from a chemical plant. Photograph: How Hwee Young/EPA

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.

Li Yan, a climate and energy expert at Greenpeace East Asia, said the case could bring exposure to polluted cities outside of Beijing, putting pressure on provincial officials to prioritise the problem. She said: "People … who live in Beijing are suffering from the polluted air, but we have the attention of both domestic and international media. Shijiazhuang's environmental problems are far more serious, and this case could bring Shijiazhuang the attention it has deserved for a long time."

China smog sees face masks sell out

Beijing pollution remains at unhealthy levels, sparking warnings to stay inside and panic buying of masks and purifiers

.

al-Jazeera,

26 February, 2014

China's biggest online face mask sellers are running out of stock, with consumers rushing to protect themselves against smog that has shrouded swathes of northern China for an entire week. Beijing's official reading for PM 2.5 - small airborne particles which easily penetrate the lungs and have been linked to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths - stood at 486 micrograms per cubic metre on Wednesday morning. The World Health Organization's recommended safe limit is 25. An alternative measure by the US embassy in Beijing said PM 2.5 levels reached 557 in the city. In Xinji, in the neighbouring province of Hebei, official Chinese statistics put the figure at 761, AFP news agency reported. Beijing government raised its four-tiered alert system to "orange" for the first time last week, after drawing public criticism for its initial ineffective response. The warning system was unveiled in October last year. The choking smog has seen anti-pollution product sales boom and online face mask stores were struggling to meet demand. Of the 29 models of face masks provided by US industrial and equipment supplier 3M's flagship store on Tmall.com, a business-to-consumer shopping website, 26 were sold out or unavailable on Wednesday. The Tmall outlet of Totobobo, which makes transparent, reusable masks in Singapore, put up a notice saying new stocks would not be available until April 1. "I'm looking for facemasks and an air purifier as the smog is getting worse. And then I found masks were sold out and the price of air purifiers is shooting up. Is everybody panicking?" complained a user on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Hazardous environment China's pollution problems are further blamed on rapid urbanisation, dramatic economic development, increasing car use and climatic factors. Pollution tends to worsen in winter. A pollution index reading above 300 is deemed "hazardous", when everyone is advised to avoid outdoor activities. "We have been trying to stay at home as much as possible for days. The pollution is really bad, and it affects our respiratory system. We just don't go out unless we absolutely have to," said 62-year-old Wang Xinrui. The National Meteorological Centre has said the pollution is expected to continue until Thursday Lawsuit over China's smog Li Guixin says he hopes to provide a 'wake-up call' to country's people and leaders. NZ Herald, 27 February, 2014 Aman from China's pollution-choked north has become the first person to attempt to sue the Government for failing to protect its citizens from the effects of toxic smog. Li Guixin, from Shijiazhuang, the capital of heavily polluted Hebei province, is demanding 10,000 yuan ($1958) compensation plus the payment of all legal costs, according to a report in the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily newspaper. Li, who claims he suffers from a bad cough, also called on the Government to provide free face masks and subsidise the price of air purifiers for homes. Within hours of the report's publication, Xi Jinping, China's President, was photographed venturing on to Beijing's smoggy streets without any protection in what was interpreted as an attempt to play down the severity of the problem. "Breathe the same air and share the same fate," the Beijing city government said on its official Weibo microblog. Hundreds of millions of urban residents are regularly exposed to levels of pollution that would spell electoral disaster for governments in other parts of the world. Li's decision to open legal proceedings follows a severe bout of pollution last December, when putrid smog forced schools and roads to shut, left planes unable to land at Chinese airports and saw officials order citizens to remain indoors. Authorities had brought a 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome under control "within months" because it was considered a "life or death" matter, Li argued. But pollution had not received the same level of attention. "I want to make every citizen aware that we are the actual victims of the smog - not only is our health under threat but we are incurring financial losses which should be covered by the Government." Li insisted that his attempt to sue the Government was about raising awareness, not money. "Some experts have made it clear that air pollution will severely damage people's hearts and lungs, shortening their lives even. Therefore, we must hold environmental authorities to account. If our laws are enforced properly, the pollution problem can be solved." This month one of China's leading lung experts told the Daily Telegraph that he had moved to a 37th-floor flat to escape Shanghai's polluted air. Li said he hoped to provide a "wake-up call" to China's people and leaders, but Chinese courts would not necessarily accept his case, the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported. A Peking University psychology student has attempted to raise awareness about pollution by placing surgical masks on statues of historical figures. "We are worried about our living environment," Jiang Chao said. "We want to change the current situation."