Courtesy of Mish.
As China enters 2014 reeling from one of the worst polluted winters in recent years, experts from two major research institutes have openly disagreed over what is the main culprit behind the capital city’s dismal air pollution.
Please consider Cars or coal? Scientists split over main culprit of Beijing’s air pollution
The Chinese capital has for many years suffered from serious air pollution. Primary sources of pollutants include exhaust emission from Beijing’s more than five million motor vehicles, coal burning in neighbouring regions, dust storms from the north and local construction dust. A particularly severe smog engulfed the city for weeks in early 2013, elevating public awareness to unprecedented levels and prompting the government to roll out emergency measures.
A Chinese couple wears protective masks while going around the Tiananmen Square on December 7, 2013. Photo: EPA
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the country’s top research body, released a study on December 30 saying motor vehicle emissions were only responsible for less than 4 per cent of Beijing’s PM2.5, the most health-threatening fine air pollutants. Instead, the study identified fossil fuel burning as the largest contributor of PM2.5, contrary to popular beliefs that the nearly 5.5 million cars clogging the capital’s streets were chiefly to blame for its air pollution.
However, barely 24 hours later, Pan Tao, president of the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, openly challenged the findings, telling People’s Daily online that motor vehicle emissions were “undoubtedly” the major source of Beijing’s air pollution.
The CAS study analysed air samples in the capital on a seasonal basis, and found that pollutants generated from industrial production and coal-burning the source of Beijing’s PM2.5 pollutants. According to the study, coal burning, industrial pollution and secondary inorganic aerosol, a catch-all term for inorganic particulates formed as a product of complex chemical reactions among pollutants, account respectively for 18 per cent, 25 per cent and 26 per cent of the air pollution at large.
Combined waste incineration and motor vehicle emissions are responsible for 4 per cent of the hazardous PM2.5 fine particles in Beijing’s air, it says.
But the academy’s conclusion appears self-contradictory as motor vehicle emissions are themselves a major contributor to secondary inorganic aerosol, argued Pan Tao from the Beijing institute. Moreover, Pan asserted, it was simply impossible that car exhaust could account for as little as 4 per cent of Beijing’s main air pollutants.
Chinese Hospital Opens Smog Clinic
The Huffington Post reports Chinese Hospital Opens Smog Clinic To Combat Worsening Air Quality
A hospital in southwest China has opened a clinic for patients who are suffering symptoms related to smog, a doctor said Wednesday, highlighting how big a concern pollution has become for Chinese.
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