Asia being pummeled by pollution from China
Right now Japan is getting the double punch from China in the form of PM2.5, a heavy particulate contaminant from coal burning in China and this horrible yellow dust from their deforestation. Korea and the rest of Asia is suffering from China's lack of responsibility too.
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http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/12/cities-exceed-beijings-air-pollution-levels/
Residents in twenty-nine Chinese cities experienced more than a month of “emergency” air pollution levels last year, according to an analysis of newly published data by Energydesk and Greenpeace East Asia.
China’s capital declares an air pollution emergency when levels of fine particulates (PM2.5) breach the emergency level of 150 micrograms per cubic meter or more in a day. The emergency threshold of PM2.5 correlates closely to the ”very unhealthy” band of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index.
City Days of ‘very unhealthy’ or above
Xingtai 129
Shijiazhuang 119
Baoding 99
Handan 95
Hengshui 94
Langfang 87
Jinan 76
Tangshan 75
Zhengzhou 66
Beijing 60
PM 2.5 is small enough to penetrate the lungs, which is why long-term exposure can lead to heart disease, strokes and lung disease, including cancer, according to the World Health Organization. In the short-term, it can also trigger asthma attacks.
In the map, the size of the bubbles represent the number of days China’s cities were at air pollution emergency levels. It shows there are concentrations of exposure to dangerous levels of air pollution in two main areas: south of Beijing in the industrialized provinces of Hebei, Shandong and Henan; and to the west and northwest of Shanghai, in another industrial heartland.
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