Job Discussion Forums

[tyroleanhat]

Upon considering moving to China one of my main concerns is my health. (or better to say: not destroying my presently perfect health)
I am asking myself the question, why would I voluntarily go to a polluted smog-city where statistics say living in a such a city shortens a persons live expectancy 5% ?

- do I worry too much?
- A face mask cannot do wonders, I guess?
- is it just in winter that bad? (my possible Uni job would start March/April)

There is a great map: http://aqicn.org/nearest/
on that map the clean numbers of Beijing confuse me. Is this coincidence and due to special weather influence, or did Bejing really got this clean in the last years?
looking at the pollution of shanghai and chongqing on that map gets me really worried to live there even for 1 week. (again I wonder if its really irrevelant as long as I wear a mask)

[teenoso]

hmm, I regularly check that site , and the figures can be truly scary , but I wonder how accurate they are beyond the testing site . Also, it measures particulate matter by size (as I understand it), and thus may not even measure some of deadlier chemicals. My city is known for poisonous chemical factories, even though the air is often clear and we have lots of blue skies.

IMO, air pollution is a ticking time bomb , and will get worse before it gets better here. Stop burning coal would be a good start, but that won't happen soon.
But hey , what's 5% here and there? At least in China you can earn a living ....
If you are really worried , try the south western provinces like Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Or maybe Xinjiang.

[tyroleanhat]

[tyroleanhat]

to answer my own questions after some research:
the better breathing masks filter pm2,5 particles almost completely. Using them, in combination with an air purifier at home seem to reduce health hazards drastically.
smog is especially dominant in winter when the coal-fired heating sets in. luckily there is light at the end of the tunnel http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/05/us-china-pollution-idUSBRE99403O20131005?
Bejing being so clean right now seems to be rather a rare situation, caused by wind.

[Non Sequitur]

The US Embassy in BJ is also concerned about the 'unreliability' of official pollution figures.
The Beijing Embassy publishes its own figures as does the Guangzhou consulate.
I understand that there has been some friction between US and China on this issue.
Friends say that in 2008 the Chinese drove pollution down for the Olympics but it is now back up to pre-Olympic levels.

[NoBillyNO]

[rogerwilco]

Photos: Beijing's startling air-quality changes within six consecutive days:

http://shanghaiist.com/2013/11/18/beijing-air-quality-changes-photos.php

[Non Sequitur]

[Non Sequitur]

Another link on this subject:
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8461816.html

[BlueBlood]

[Non Sequitur]

It's all relative BB. Look at any city and remember the coal fired heating plants have started up over the last few weeks.
Harbin airport was closed by smog last week. not weather - smog.

[mambawamba]

The air in Qingdao is better then other cities on some days.

Over the last few days we've had the following conversations:
hmmm, that smells like someone's coated meat with plastic then burnt it hmmm that smells like trainers on fire
hmmm that smells like McDonalds with a backnote of cat vomit
hmmm that smells like someone's set a poo truck's on fire
hmmm that smells like nail varnish remover

In the past year and a half we've only once said hmmm can you smell the sea and that was when all the algae was washing up on the beach.

Last year there were at least 10 days we didn't take our boy out of the house because the air was visibly yellow.

We know if the wind is coming from inland -which it rarely does out in Laoshan- the air will be disgusting.

Saying that I'd rather be here than in Shanghai or Beijing.

Mamba

[Non Sequitur]

..and then there's the water.
'The water here has a nice bark flavour. It must be from all the dogs floating in the reservoir'.

[mambawamba]

Don't start me on the water man. Went to Shanghai for a few days, had an allergic reaction to the water at the hotel ended up with a rash from here to the yazoo. Meh!

[NoBillyNO]