Why living in Southern China is healthy(ier)

photo by IsaacMao

A few days ago, I came across an interesting article published by the National Geographic which says that burning coal has shortened live expectancy dramatically in Northern China over the past years. According to National Geographic, this process even started decades before when the Chinese government gave away free coal to provinces above the Huai River (the 0°C/32°F barrier) during winter months. This took place for 30 years from 1950 until 1980. Even today, a lot of those heating systems are still being used and coal is even subsidized. This led to an extreme pollution problem in the North and the approximate life expectancy of people living in Northern China is 5.5 years shorter compared to Southern China! Most common health issues are heart and lung diseases. The most serious pollution problems can be found in Beijing, nearby Tianjin, Lanzhou (Gansu province) and Harbin (Heilongjiang province).

The Most Polluted City in the World

Luckily, during my time in Guangzhou, there were only maybe 3 days when we had really bad smog there. One day, was extremely bad. I came home from the city late afternoon/early evening and I had to walk over a bridge that connects my neighborhood with the major street where the bus station is. When I came home I felt like I was 90 years old – I had to lie down on my bed and just breathe for a couple of minutes until I felt normal again. CRAZY experience. But Guangzhou is not a very polluted city at all – there are a lot worse places…

The documentary “The Devastating Effects of Pollution in China” made by the North American magazine VICE. Its own Youtube channel just recently reached 2,000,000 subscribers. Further, the VICE team became the first Americans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in person after sending basketball players equipped with a video camera into North Korea.

“The Devastating Effects of Pollution in China” leads us through the city of Linfen in Southern Shanxi, which is considered to be the worst polluted place on earth. Apparently, staying in Linfen and breathing in the air for only one day has the same effects on your body as smoking three packs of cigarettes per day.

Surprisingly, before the year 1978 Linfen was considered to be one of the most beautiful places in China, famous for its spring water and rich agriculture. It was even nicknamed “The Modern Fruit and Flower Town”. However, since then it became a victim of extreme coal mining.

Local doctors complain lung cancer increased tremendously in Linfen over the past years and children suffer from asthma and serious health issues. It’s not even recommended to go outside anymore – at all!

What can you do to protect yourself?

Well, there are certainly ways to escape the vicious smog wave in various Chinese cities! Of course, you could move to Southern cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen or Zhuhai, where pollution is not even comparable to the horrible air quality in Northern cities, but if your heart lies in Beijing or Shanghai, you should not have to leave, just be more cautious about life there!

There is a great App specifically designed for people living in China to be updated about smog issues in their region. The application is called “China Air Quality Index” and can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play. The following languages are available: English, Danish, French, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.

You can also find the App on your Weixin (WeChat) using this QR-Code:

The app does not only feature detailed information about pollution in the three major cities Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou but can even track down details from smaller towns in more remote areas. The information is filtered from two sources: US Consulate/Embassy and Chinese authorities.

1. Information about a specific City

If you take a look at the example for Guangzhou you will always have different information from each authority stated above. The big numbers, here 76 and 31, represent the so called Air Pollution Index Level (API level). This unit was designed to specifically describe the air quality in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Malaysia. The API consists of 7 different levels which indicate the severeness of pollution in a specific area; the score can be between 0 and 300+.

Please click photo for bigger image

Further, you can see different indicators like PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and NO2 (the latter three are only provided by the Chinese official data). PM2.5 describes suspended particles in air that are of 2.5 micrometers, i.e. very small pollution particles, whereas PM10 describes larger particles of around 10 micrometers. SO2 is sulfur dioxide and NO2 nitrogen dioxide. Of course, the higher the number after those units, the problematic the situation is. Last, the words “Good” and “Excellent” describe the air pollution level for the specific region (as seen on the chart).

You can even track down API levels for a specific time during the day, see the air quality from past days and get advice on health:

        

2. Air Quality Map for China

You are also able to see a complete map of China indicating the air quality in different cities or areas. The API is marked by colored dots: green being the best, dark red the worst API.

3. Ranking

This section is very interesting. Here, you can filter ranking by “latest”, “Last 30 Days” and “Last 1 Year” to see which cities have had the highest API.

As you can see, the latest number 1 is Zhengzhou in Henan province, which is only 4.5 hours away from Linfen. Zhengzhou is one of the Eight Great Ancient Capitals of China, however, since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the city has also transformed into a mining and manufacturing hub creating masses of pollution.

In the past month, however, the city of Shijiazhuang (Hebei) has led the list of the highest API. This

city is located right between Linfen and Beijing. Shijiazhuang is even considered to be one of the world’s most polluted places and, as a result, even launched various incentives in 2012 to replace coal-fired boilers with gas.

In the period of one past year, another city in Hebei province is ranked to have the worst air quality in China: Xingtai. The city can be reached from Shijiazhuang within only 2 hours; from Linfen it takes about 7 hours to get there. Not surprising, Xingtai is also a huge base for coal mining in China. It is even considered to be the most important hub for natural resources. According to its own government platform, the city produces 20 million metric tonnes of coal every year.

One thing is clear, the Chinese government needs to tackle the problem about coal in the next years or air quality and health issues will become worse. During the Beijing Olympics we have seen that it is possible to reduce air pollution – at least in Beijing – to a minimum. Until China’s cities become cleaner, it is on us to protect ourselves and try to raise awareness. The Air Quality App is certainly a helpful tool but it does not solve the problem.

What are you doing to protect yourself from bad air quality in China? Are you using the Air Quality Map? Leave a comment.