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Subscribe to RSSThis past winter Beijing has seen some of the worst air pollution since the government promised more "blue sky" days after the 2008 Olympic Games. NBC's Adrienne Mong reports.
BEIJING — Earlier this month, a U.S. study on the economic impact of China’s air pollution was released with little fanfare. Maybe it was because of the series of successive “blue sky” days we were enjoying in the Chinese capital, thanks to the gusty winds blowing down from Mongolia.
The study, which was conducted by researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, breaks down costs that result from the health impacts from ozone and particulate matter, which typically lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
The conclusion? “[D]espite improvements in overall air quality,” the cost of air pollution (as in lost economic productivity growth) in China has mushroomed from $22 billion in 1975 to $112 billion in 1995. But for at least one pair of 29-year old software engineers in Beijing, air pollution has actually meant greater economic productivity and a business opportunity.
A killer app
Wang Jun and Zhang Bin each moved to Beijing in 2001 to attend college. Zhang, a Fujian native, was a math major at Beijing University while Wang left Inner Mongolia to study traffic infrastructure at Jiaotong University.
They met at a high-tech company, where for three years they worked together. Last year, they decided to strike out on their own and set up Fresh Ideas Studio.
“The primary aim … is creating mobile apps for solving practical problems in our daily lives,” Wang said, on a blustery (but sunny) afternoon at a coffee shop.
Last year saw some of the worst air pollution in Beijing since the 2008 Summer Olympics, spurring intense discussion among Chinese residents, teeth-gnashing among Western expats, and a near-diplomatic spat between the U.S. and China over fine particulate matter in the air known as PM2.5 that can wreak havoc on the respiratory system.
“Recently, the media and Weibo [a popular Chinese microblog like Twitter] users are very concerned about air quality, especially in Beijing,” Wang said.
In particular, there was a lot of online chatter about @Beijing Air, the U.S. embassy Twitter account that posts hourly Air Quality Index(AQI) data.
The readings come from an air quality monitor that sits on top of the embassy in downtown Beijing, and they differ sharply from the daily results posted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP).
Fresh Ideas Studios
The 2.0 version of Fresh Ideas Studio's app shows both U.S. and Chinese air quality readings.
AQI values on @BeijingAir range from 0 to 500. A “good” AQI is 0 to 50 or what the Chinese call a “blue sky” day. Unfortunately, many days in 2011 qualified as “unhealthy” to “hazardous.” But on some of those same days, MEP data maintained the levels were “good” or “moderate.” (The Chinese, in fact, claim there were 286 "blue sky" days in 2011.)
“The [Beijing] government says that nearly 80 percent of the days in the last two years met at least the Chinese standard and therefore had good or even excellent air quality,” Steve Andrews, an environmental consultant who has analyzed the @BeijingAir data, said. “While when we look at the U.S. Embassy data … over 80 percent days exceeded what would be considered healthy air quality and more days were hazardous than good.”
Andrews said that Beijing's pollution levels were "six or seven times higher than the U.S.'s most polluted city." "Air pollution at these levels likely shortens life expectancy by about five years," he added.
The discrepancy was due to the fact the U.S. embassy monitor includes PM2.5, a fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter that, according to the EPA, “pose the greatest health risks [and] can lodge deeply into the lungs.”
The Chinese data, however, only measured the much coarser PM10 particles.
Adrienne Mong
Zhang Bin (left) and Wang Jun watch NBC News cameraman David Lom set up for an interview.
“I’m a Twitter user and saw many Tweets about [@BeijingAir],” Zhang said. “Many Weibo users reposted the data, too.”
The software developers decided to try creating a smartphone application that based itself on the @BeijingAir data.
“Sometimes we can tell there’s a gap between what we feel and the data from the government,” Wang said. “This is probably why many prefer the data provided by the U.S. embassy.”
In November, they released a 1.0 version, available only in Chinese and which came with simple but appealing graphics. On good AQI days, the screen background was light and featured a hiking boot, indicating it was time to be outdoors. On bad AQI days, the screen background turned dark, an X marked the boot, and a person’s face wrapped in a mask would pop up.
There were iOS and Android versions of the app. Within weeks, it had been downloaded 80,000 times. At least half of those users checked the app regularly, according to Wang.
Pollution 'ignored' in past
Under popular pressure that has been building since last year, Chinese environment authorities in Beijing have agreed to publish PM2.5 data. But they maintain the air quality has improved steadily in recent years.
“We may have had bad pollution in the past, but people probably didn’t pay too much attention to it before so it was just ignored,” said An Xinxin, who works in the Automatic Monitoring Office at the Beijing Environmental Protection Monitoring Center.
The Center relies on anywhere from 30 to 40 monitoring stations. “Almost every district and county in Beijing has its own station,” explained An. “So citizens in every district and county can know what the pollution in their own area is like.”
Like many of his colleagues at the municipal level, An pointed out that the U.S. embassy only uses one monitor. “[It] can only represent one spot at a certain time. Their spot might be very close to the road where there is a lot of vehicle exhaust, which causes a high level of PM2.5,” he said. “Our statistics are an average of Beijing as a whole, not just one spot.”
Zhang has lived in Beijing for more than ten years, but he said he’s not sure whether the air quality has improved or not. “I don’t know if it’s because now I pay more attention [because of the media and online discussion], or if it’s because the air quality has worsened,” he said.
But he and Wang dreamed up the idea of incorporating both the Chinese and American data streams into their app.
On Monday this week, they introduced a 2.0 version that not only posts real-time data from the U.S. embassy in Beijing and U.S. consulates around China, it also includes data from the Chinese Ministry of Environment’s monitoring centers in 120 cities across the country.
Also available in English, the app has been downloaded nearly 5,000 times.
“We thought it was good to include both. In some cities, users might want alternative information,” Wang said. “If there were a third source for air pollution data, we’d probably include it in the app, too.”
They might also want to add Hong Kong to their list of cities.
This month, a local nongovernmental group said Hong Kong’s air is 20 per cent more deadly than the air in mainland China.
Using data from Hong Kong’s own government and the World Health Organization, the Clean Air Network ranked Hong Kong ahead of mainland China, India, Vietnam, and Bangladesh for its high air pollution mortality rates.
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With additional reporting from Bo Gu and Ting Zhao.
Leave a Comment:
Steve Jobs & Apples' fault.
No expertise needed to know that sticking your mouth around a tailpipe will shorten your lifespan.
Nowonder they smoke.
@exotix - What useless comment.
It does not come as any surprise that the air quality in Beijing will shorten your lifespan. I remember from the Olympics that many of the international athletes had serious concerns about the air quality and what it would do to their health, not to mention their performance in events that were held outdoors. The air quality during the Olympics was bad despite the fact that the Chinese government shut down some of the worst polluting factories during the games the try and improve the air quality. I definitely would not want to have to live in Beijing and breathe that toxic soup every day.
Why is my comment useless then ?
Google Apple China Pollution and get back to us ... and as to why Jobs bragged about Apple / Mac having more money than Microsoft, Google and the U.S. Govt. combined ...
Why worry about it. The world is suppose to end in Dec. 2012.
exotix - The plant that make's Apple's products is located in Shenzhen, China. Nowhere near Beijing. But I agree with you that Apple is a pretty big hypocrite.
You actually believe Apple has no influence on Chinas' Communist Capitalist Policies ... especially with regards to slave labor, (eco / financial) - (non-existent) regulations and tax-free industrialism known as Business-Friendly ?
Why do you think Bush and the neocons borrowed from China to pay for the wars ... lemme guess, to bankrupt America so the Koch Brothers and the neo-Tea Baggers could privatize the U.S. Govt so they can call you a greenie-weenie as they continue to conduct deregulated eco-terroism on you and your children ... because that's the way to pay down said Bush neocon catastrophic deficits ...
... because the Founding Fathers said so and they *Care* ...
:nutzo:
exotix: Your childish name-calling already puts your post down with the bottom-feeders here, but to imply Apple is squelching Chinese air pollution controls for some unstated reason, and to further state the ultaconservatives in this country are borrowing from China so they can create an artificial crisis in which they can dismantle our own air pollution regulations is summed up nicely by your own post: nutzo.
People in this country give govt far too much credit, coming up with these fanciful conspiracy theories when the coordination, secrecy, and sheer luck required to pull them off staggers the imagination. That's why the rest of us make jokes about tinfoil hats; it's ludicrous.
Lemme guess ... you were, and still are, behind Bush all the way when he went to the Beijing Olympics as the first U.S. President to do so on foreign soil ... so to praise the China Communist Capitalists for banking the U.S in addition to looting the U.S. Treasury and of course Chinas' success based on Bush Daddys' New World Order NAFTA policies and other global economic transgressions ... and to slap U.S. Women Vollyball Team players on the azz'z ...
All on your Tax-paying dime ...
Again ... :nutzo:
How do you get all that from him rejecting your Apple/Bush conspiracy theory? All the way to sexually harassing female athletes? Oi.
Really now, how much control do you really think APPLE can possibly exert on a massive, totalitarian country?
exotix: I hadn't realized Bush did go to the Beijing Olympics, but now that I know he did, you're right, I support that. The Olympics shouldn't be politicized, regardless of the provocation. It's not fair to the athletes who spend their whole lives, usually on their own dime, earning the right to compete for their country. Why shouldn't their president be there to cheer them on?
Read Chinas' Lips ... no new taxes, regulations, unions, balanced trade, currency alignment ... on and on and on ...
LOL.
exotix: I don't think your viewpoint is something I can even come close to understanding, much less support. I've never understood conspiracy theorists or those who see the world in black and white. Must make it easy to vote though.
Oh, well, there's a reason U.S. industry outsouces to China ... it's a wasteland of slave labor to the enviornment ... an oyster, a goldmine for the bottom-line .... there's a reason your Apple i-Device will never have a little *Made in the USA* sticker on the back ...
Damn those U.S. unions and environmentalists who want a good pay and clean air and water ...
Sad.
exotix: I don't understand you. You quote someone's post, then add a reply that has nothing to do with what they said. Do you realize you're making no sense?
You hate China, I get that, but nothing anyone you've quoted has said anything about being approving of their policies. You put words in their mouths, then dispute what you've made up. Huh?
You're like a Lab Monkey ... like today's bizarre conservatives(ism) ... I never said I hate China, it's what you thought you heard or think you're hearing ...
If you don't get it ... that is, if you can't even grapple with the simple concepts ... that is, why its so profitable to move your industry to China ... that is, where slave labor is bountiful, there are zero taxes ... and the environment ... that is, where the air, land and water requires no regulatory oversight or pollution standards by the govt. ... and you can simply dump your waste / waste products wherever you like ... that is, a toxic wasteland ...
... that is, this is what the insane right-wing means by ending all regulations ... like Bush did ... perhaps as a means to compete with China success ... they invented ...
Well, and again, you don't get it ... but I don't expect you too ... that's why we call it the insane right-wing ...
LOL.
See, you're doing it again. You do realize I'm not a conservative, don't you? That nothing I've said supports outsourcing or China's policies. I even voted for Al Gore. I'm beginning to wonder if English is your first language, you misinterpret it to such a degree.
I honestly feel like I'm having two different conversations, the one I'm trying to have, and the one you're having which has nothing to do with mine. It's bizarre.
In any event, I'm done having both of them. You can argue with yourself from here on (which you've been doing anyway so no problem).
What is he an expert of the obvious? No @!$%# Sherlock!
I go to China often and you dont have to be an expert to know breathing that air on a daily basis will take years off your life. Just look at the people. They all look 20 years older than they actually are.
Drivel, Bob. Spoken through U.S. layers of blubber.
An "expert?" That is a new title like CEO, CFO, President, etc. As an expert on smog and the effects of smog I predict that 100% of those people living there today, breathing that air, will all die.
They could always adopt the California model.
kc, you and the sunshine (blue sky day) boys are frogs in a well.
They can take what consolation they may in knowing that the five years they lose will be the last five.
God's children have been given dominion over the Earth and are to be the stewards of its upkeep.
Amen brother. The EPA, or rather a select few within the EPA have learned the "Christian" concept of "turning the other cheek." Folk lore has it that Dupont, the nation's largest chemical producer, was trying to figure out where they could dump their chemical waste. One night, a Dupont executive prayed and prayed. In the early hours of the morning he had a vision. Fill "Milk Trucks" with the waste, drive it south to the small creeks, streams, and rivers that feed into the world's largest estuary, The Chesapeake Bay and dump it there. This they did and have done as the EPA cops have turned the other cheek and kept their hand out for a wad of cash. I read where The Chesapeake Bay continues to die and after billions of dollars of studies and tests they can't understand why. Then there is always the EPA and others with their severe action on BP and the way they destroyed The Gulf. I remember seeing the BP executives walking out of the front doors of the White House, after meeting with President Obama. A meeting of 15 minutes and a quick settlement of 20 billion. They were trying very hard to hold back their smiles and look very sad. Why are people still getting sick and dying down there "for unknown reasons?" Could it be the untold tons of the dispersent that BP dumped into The Gulf; the highly toxic Corexit 1800?? I see the commercials on the television about how clean the waters and the beaches are down there; never more clean in the history of the earth.....Where has the Corexit gone? What about that "settlement." Where is my cut, my share? As a citizen of these United States I too own a piece of The Gulf. No, I will not eat the once tasty shrimp, a special treat, that come out the The Gulf waters. I will not eat that "farm raised" stuff either. Have you all visited a fish or shrimp farm? There they are, in big tanks, swimming around in their own feces until it is harvest time. "Stewards of The Earth?" Crap in a river and think nothing of it.
If the US Embasy sign showed an AQI of 0, the API from China would show -98.
WOW! Sounds like the air in the US before the creation of the EPA, which Santorum, Romney, Paul and Gingrich want to put under the ax, supposedly to create more jobs. Sounds like those jobs would be in the medical field and mortuary science.
That's what I was just thinking. Just as the Chinese are very slowly realizing what a pollution mess they have on their hands, the GOP candidates would have us reverse decades of progress in cleaning up our own country. Typical short-term thinking. Save a few bucks today, but pay for it for the rest of our lives.
Yep that smog has the smell of MONEY...
American Money, and American Jobs....
Maybe Walmart will help pay for them to clean up their air problems...lol
Watcha Ya think...?
BS, JC... No need for the EPA if current property rights are enforced. It's illegal to pee on your neighbors lawn, just as it's illegal to pollute their water or air. Granted, property rights weren't enforced during the height of the industrial revolution, but I'd like to think that we're all a bit more savvy about issues regarding our environment at this point in time.
Property Rights Enforcement>EPA.
So do you support pollution by buying products made in China?
I'm sure you would be the first to complain when the price went up due to pollution controls.
Paul
So exactly which neighbor do I sue over the air quality? Or the pollution in the river that travels a thousand miles or so before it gets to me?
If a majority of effected "neighbors" within that thousand miles files a class action law suit against the originator of the pollution, I'm fairly certain that the originator will be required to cease and desist, or else go out of business.
Or maybe I'm just a crazy idealist and we'll never have the capacity to enforce laws in this country, so we really do need to continue giving a large percentage of our hard earned money to the government so that they can supply us with (selective) protection.
You'd require a "majority" of affected people to come together and take legal action? That'd be incredibly expensive and logistically difficult. Polluters would love that.
What do you do if there are dozens, if not hundreds, of polluters? Drag them all into court at one time, or would you require individual law suits.
We expect the government to catch and punish criminals. Under your philosophy, if I was mugged or my house was burgled, I'd just take the suspect (if I could find him) to court for violating my property rights.
The apple factory isn't in Beijing... so...
No ?
Google Apple China Pollution and get back to us ... and as to why Jobs bragged about Apple / Mac having more money than Microsoft, Google and the U.S. Govt. combined ...
oh...sure...like...the apple factory forced its way into china....uh huh...and the poor chicom "leaders" were all so totally helpless and not able to resist steve jobs...oh poor, poor chicoms...and the chicom leaders are NOT reaping the profits at the expense of the chinese sheeople?????
yeah...sure...sing me another song dude....you must be living in a total fantasy world....
or didn't you hear: it takes two to tango...
if the chicom leaders were so totally concerned about thir constituents' health they COULD'VE said no to steve...but...NOOOOOO!!!!!
hey...do you remember how incredibly polluted the eastern commie european countries were during the communist regime, where life expectancy was about 50 years during those good old socialist/communist times????
the chicoms are just as "concerned" and hungry if not hungrier for loot as anyone else...including you exotix...
you'd be singing a totally different song if YOUR bank account was lined with apple dollars...which makes you merely an envious socialist bordering on the communist...
if you are so outraged, why don't you go and liberate all those poor, poor people across the pond...eh?
vilmos - home run, couldn't agree more. I think the Chicom gov. actually doesn't mind if some people die off early. It's not like they are running out of them. Probably helps them control the population easier. In China $$ has value, life, not so much. Who can blame them. USA sits in judgment, with our values, like we even have an idea of how to run and control 2 billion people.
Oh, yeah, let us in the U.S. just say TSK! to the Chinese. Fries- supersized Coke anyone? And darn this diabetes.
It'll be ok kc, I'm sure another article will come along soon so you can share more fat wank.
Last time I checked, McDonald's didn't pump Coke and Big Macs into the atmosphere to fatten up people who were unlucky enough to live close. Eating right is a choice. If you guzzle soda pop until your heart stops, that's your own fault and I don't have to care. Pollution is a different matter.
Just keep their "productivity" over there, along with cracker jack toy production.
Their productivity is being paid for with American dollars...
And its not staying over there, its coming right back to America...
Who do you think is buying those cracker jacks..?
You guessed it, America
Really? Nooo... Inhaling soot, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and ozone 24/7 will shorten your life? You're kidding.
If we could just eliminate the EPA like the Republican presidential candidates have suggested we could be enjoying the same type of air that the Chinese do. Eliminate the environmental regulations, health care, minimum wage, and unions and maybe we could get some of those good old 12 to 16 hour a day factory jobs back here in the USA. You wouldn't have to worry about being outside that much because you would be working most of the time and you wouldn't have more then a basic income so you wouldn't have the money for frivolous activities anyway.
JQ, see my comment above (#5.3) regarding the EPA.
I don't know what it's going to take for us to realize that big government, does not equal liberty and prosperity. Has no one noticed that the bigger our gov gets, the poorer the majority of us are getting?
I don't have money for frivolous activities now....and I work close to 12 hours per day, and I don't have benefit of a union so my wages are pitiful which is why I work as much as I do......How about getting past the notion that government is protecting everyone and the unions are protecting everyone......more US workers don't have this glorious safety net that everyone clings to with a death grip and politicians spin to further their campaigns, than do have the benefit of them. Stop bashing Republicans.....I am just a poor working slob, and I have had it with watching the money go overseas, and knowing that American factories aren't producing anything that the rest of the world seems to want or that they can afford....I am tired of seeing "made in China" on everything that I buy. The government as a whole is responsible for this mess, not just one side or the other, because going back over the recent decades, the power has shifted back and forth, yet conditions have not really been improved nor promises met nor problems addressed by either side-just a whole lot of finger pointing and blaming.
Paul
And see my comment to you about property rights.
Property rights MAY protect the quality of your little cocoon around you but not when you leave that cocoon. The EPA is very necessary unless we want to end up like China. And I'm guessing the majority of Americans don't.
If you've ever had to deal with the EPA as I have you soon realize they are just bureaucrats. It doesn't matter how hard you work, or how much you spend to meet the requirements. On a whim, it can change and you have no recourse. In my case dust remediation, the particle size was reduced by 1/2 I was told this on final inspection after spending a considerable amount. So I closed the plant and cut my loses. I felt it was a no win. They would never be satisfied.
Since we are down wind of China will this pollution shorten my life?
In one word GREAT
This is why we should be subsidizing their environmental cleanup.
Why? China has plenty of money. They could do it themselves if they cared enough.
Or, rather, if their leaders, who have no actual obligation to listen to their people, took initiative.
what is worse looseing 5 years or starving to death?
Why does the US government care so much about Beijing's air quality anyway? It's not an American city, not the capital of the United States. It's merely another tool that American politicians use to create a diversion of public discontent in the US. Why should Americans care about Beijing's air quality...they don't live there, it's more than 10,000 KM away from even California.
Had the US government spent half of the time dealing with domestic issue than sticking its nose into other countries' , maybe the US economy could've been better...
Simply...........We are having a global warming problem. There are no borders to pollution, not really! The entire world must attack the problem and it would sure help if the US had the sense to get on board to stop all carbon emissions everywhere.
Uh, as I understand it, the sensor was put there for the benefit of the US embassy staff, and ended up receiving far more attention than was originally intended.
And if you're questioning the story, it was created by a private news outlet and has nothing to do with the US government... so your accusation about "diversions" is quite disingenuous, or otherwise misinformed. The government has nothing to do with this story or issue (or at least, the US government).
We could have the same kind of air to breath in the U.S. if the nuts who constantly complain about regulations get their way. I heard one of the wackos say that it's easier to do business in China than here. He's right, they regulate nothing. Just like the U.S. in the 20's and 30's. if some of them get their way we could go back to those times
well then why isn't the epa busting on them for sending over to us, the wind blows west to east. not done screwing us forst, the obama and the demo's can screw up so bad, my ex-mother in law is wondering how she will get food and to the doctors with his freakin lies about the gas price's. this is how obama will take care of the population problem in this country. death.
What is the price for a so called better life style. China took out farm fields to make room for pavment and buildings. What serves the people better. Good food or bad air. Someones greed paying with lives of poor. Do we really need all of the widgets and gadgets. Rember when we were primative with clean water and air. Who wants to live long in good health anyhow? I would rather have a motorscooter.
A lot of those "widgets and gadgets", as well as general economic growth, improve lifespans and general health even more than clean air does; good luck living until fifty when we were "primitive," regardless of how clean your environment is. And the idea that you have to choose between economic prosperity and healthy air is a fallacy anyway. Gimme my motorscooter.
Where do the Republicans think this stuff goes to after it affects a lifespan? The globe is just naturally warming up? Someone should stick a tailpipe up ............
Since the PRC government can adjust its sensors and reading to show that the air quality is good, they must be satisfied with the air quality and impacts of same, why are we worrying about it. If they love to pollute their own air, land and water to produce cheap goods for us, just say thank you and enjoy. If the people there don't like the situation, they can always do something about it, the CCP included.
I'm more concerned with the air here in the northeast. With the popularity of wood burning stoves and outdoor boilers, the air quality has gotten very poor. I live in a residential area and I'm surrounded with wood stoves. This past week has been just about unbearable. Burning eyes, coughing like a two or three pack a day smoker and a heart that I can't get back into rhythm (afib). The EPA has recently lowered the outdoor standards to the same as the eight hr. time weighted indoor standard. A huge step back for air quality. We're headed in the same direction as China and it's not going to be pretty.
Then complain to your local government.
We're not headed in the same direction as China because your government is answerable to its voters. If you're not satisfied, speak up.
SF, I've been to the local government and my State Rep and it does no good. In fact when I went to the Public Comments meeting when they were making up the new regulations for the OWBs, there were two state representatives there supporting the Wood Burning people stating how it was within their rights and freedoms to burn where ever and when ever they pleased. The American Lung Association was also there and gave a very good presentation on the health effects of wood smoke and he might just as well as saved his breath. It's going to be an uphill battle. When I went to our local Codes and Ordnances Department, I got a very nice lecture from the Department Head on how clean the air actually is here and how, if anything, the standards were going to be lowered because our air is so clean. It doesn't look good. I'm looking for someplace to move to, but not having much luck.
You know Captrick, part of my thoughts are that we humans, in the big picture, are probably living about as clean and environmentally sound as 6 BILLION can on this earth. Think about it, back to nature and all is OK, but if we all burned wood stoves or had horses and grew everything 'organically' we would be way more poluted and we would not be able to support all these people.
The California Air Resource Board is run by politically appointed attorneys who are not qualified to deal in matters that affect public health.
The head of the Bay Area Air Board has stated that it is OK for people with "normal" lungs to breathe carbon monoxide, methane, formaldehyde, naphthalene, benzene, sulfur dioxide, toluene, nitrogen oxide, methyl chloride, and particulate organic carbon.
With the right kind of friends, who needs enemies.
Duyumeen thaa chinas air quality suckz Canal Water like in California/Mexifornia, Denver & most large usa cities? If so then WTH yu cud be 110% correct. & yesss Ino it.
Eight out of ten of the most unhealthy cities in the United States for breathing air are in California with Los Angeles being a "kill zone". Los Angeles air pollution cuts off three years of life span.
Ten per cent of the residents of Los Angeles die from complications arising from the air they breathe.
In Los Angeles there are toxic pockets of extremely unhealthy air that the air board REFUSES to address. They will only look at the "big picture" because that makes the air we actually do breathe to appear better than it is.
Way too many toxic chemicals and ultra-fine organic particles in the air that are now known to cause serious cardiovascular damage from hundreds of thousands of charcoal barbeques, fireplaces and hamburger type restaurants IN USE EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR.
Technology is available to prevent this, but the air board REFUSES to address this issue. They refuse to control the organics that are now known to cause cause hardening of the arteries, strokes, heart attacks, and a diminution of our ability to think.
PLACING THE SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY DISTRICT IN CHARGE OF AIR QUALITY IN LOS ANGELES IS LIKE PLACING A FOX IN CHARGE OF GUARDING THE CHICKENS.
No kidding! Pollution is dangerous? What a revelation. Now, how much taxpayer money did we pay for this stupendous study?
Besides the communist government of China, Governor Rick Perry and his Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also just look at PM10 instead of the health damaging PM2.5.
Thanks to the EPA for trying to protecting our health in the face of such "communistic" attitudes deep in the heart of Texas.