China

South China Morning Post – 22 Jan 2012

Authorities fulfil promise, under intense public pressure over PM2.5 – but only at one station

Beijing environmental authorities yesterday began releasing hourly air pollution readings for PM2.5 – health-threatening fine particles with a diameter less than 2.5 microns – fulfilling a promise of publicising them before the Lunar New Year, under intense public pressure.

The readings of one monitoring station at Chegongzhuang in Xicheng district were updated hourly with about three hours’ delay on the website of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre.

Releasing PM2.5 data was perceived as a move to appease residents angry about the government’s prolonged secrecy over the city’s deteriorating air quality. Beijing authorities have long measured PM10 levels, meaning particles with a diameter of 10-microns or less. But PM2.5 are considered more critical as these smaller bodies can embed themselves deep in the lungs and even enter the bloodstream.

They can cause cancer and extreme respiratory problems.

The US embassy conducts its own monitoring, in Chaoyang district, and publishes its PM2.5 readings on Twitter, winning praise from the public while giving Chinese authorities a headache.

Analysts applauded the move as a step forward in environmental-information disclosure because residents would be better informed about air quality. The government had fulfilled its commitment, they said, which helped restore its credibility.

However, the readings were obtained from only one of the city’s six monitoring stations equipped to take PM2.5 readings.

“The readings at one station cannot represent the whole city’s air conditions, but they still serve as an important reference for the public,” said Ma Jun , head of the non-government Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. “I hope the government can disclose data from other stations soon.”

A Beijing official said the government had monitored PM2.5 levels since 2006, but the data was collected mainly for research.

The government said it hoped to install equipment for taking PM2.5 readings at all 27 monitoring stations and release real-time figures by the end of this year.

It was sunny with a blue sky and some wind yesterday. The official reading at 12pm yesterday showed 0.015mg per cubic metre while the US embassy reading was 0.018mg per cubic metre, or a measure of 57 on the Air Quality Index.

The US data fell into the category of moderate health concern, which means people with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly and children are groups most at risk, according to Air Now, a website designed to provide air-quality information.

Smog plagued the capital on Thursday as the United States embassy readings at 3am and 11pm exceeded 0.5mg per cubic metre, categorised as “hazardous for the entire population”.

Ma said that the rapid development of the city powered by coal-burning electrical plants, a growing number of cars, dust from construction sites and emissions from surrounding heavy-chemical industries had offset efforts taken by the authorities at improving air quality.

Professor Zhu Tong , head of Peking University’s centre for environment and health, said that it would take some time to see the results of efforts taken to improve air quality. “The air can be improved when the new sources of pollutants are fewer and government takes greater steps to counter their effects,” he said.

priscilla.jiao@scmp.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/beijing-starts-releasing-key-data-expected-to-indicate-extent-of-citys-air-pollution/2012/01/21/gIQA3jOaFQ_story.html

By Associated Press, Published: January 21

BEIJING — Caving to public pressure, Beijing environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air quality data Saturday that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital’s air pollution is. But one expert says measurements from the first day were low compared with data U.S. officials have been collecting for years.

The initial measurements were low on a day where you could see blue sky. After a week of smothering smog, the skies over the city were being cleared by a north wind.

The readings of PM2.5 — particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair — were being posted on Beijing’s environmental monitoring center’s website. Such small particulates can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

It is the first time Beijing has publicly revealed PM2.5 data and follows a clamor of calls by citizens on social networking sites tired of breathing in gray and yellow air. The U.S. Embassy measures PM2.5 from a device on its rooftop and releases the results, and some residents have even tested the air around their neighborhoods and posted the results online.

Beijing is releasing hourly readings of PM2.5 that are taken from one monitoring site about 4 miles (7 kilometers) west of Tiananmen Square, the monitoring center’s website said Saturday. It said the data was for research purposes and the public should only use it as a reference.

The reading at noon Saturday was 0.015 milligrams per cubic meter, which would be classed as “good” for a 24-hour exposure at that level, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The U.S. Embassy reading taken from its site on the eastern edge of downtown Beijing said its noon reading was “moderate.” Its readings are posted on Twitter.

Steven Andrews, an environmental consultant who has studied Beijing’s pollution data since 2006, said he was “already a bit suspicious” of Beijing’s PM2.5 data. Within the 24-hour period to noon Saturday, Beijing reported seven hourly figures “at the very low level” of 0.003 milligrams per cubic meter.

“In all of 2010 and 2011, the U.S. Embassy reported values at or below that level only 18 times out of over 15,000 hourly values or about 0.1 percent of the time,” said Andrews. “PM2.5 concentrations vary by area so a direct comparison between sites isn’t possible, but the numbers being reported during some hours seem surpisingly low.”

The Beijing center had promised to release PM2.5 data by the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year on Monday. It has six sites that can test for PM2.5 and 27 that can test for the larger, coarser PM10 particles that are considered less hazardous. The center is expected to buy equipment and build more monitoring sites to enable PM2.5 testing.

Beijing wasn’t expected to include PM2.5 in its daily roundups of the air quality anytime soon. Those disclosures, for example “light” or “serious,” are based on the amount of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in the air.

Beijing interprets air quality using less stringent standards than the U.S. Embassy, so often when the government says pollution is “light,” the embassy terms it “hazardous.”

“There has been tremendous amounts of attention in the Chinese media — whichever newspaper you pick up, whichever radio station you listen to, channel you watch — they are all talking about PM2.5 and how levels are so high,” said Andrews.

“What has been so powerful is that people are skeptical, and I think rightly skeptical,” about the government’s descriptions of data, he said.

___

Online:

Beijing center’s readings (in Chinese): http://zx.bjmemc.com.cn/

The U.S. Embassy’s Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/beijingair

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

Updated: 2012-01-21 15:56

(Xinhua)

BEIJING – Beijing’s environment authority on Saturday launched the much-anticipated PM2.5 measure of air quality, fulfilling its promise of publishing the data ahead of the Spring Festival holiday, which starts on Sunday.

The Beijing Environment Protection Monitoring Center said its monitoring station at the city’s second ring road had detected 0.003 micrograms of PM (particular matter) 2.5 per cubic meter, suggesting the air quality is good.

The PM2.5 gauge is considered stricter than Beijing’s previous standard of PM10, as it monitors “fine” particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter.

A fierce online public debate on PM2.5 and PM10 began at the end of 2011 when it came to light that air-quality monitoring results released by Beijing’s weather forecast station and the US Embassy in Beijing often differed.

On Saturday, the embassy’s air-quality rating also suggested the air is “good.”

Zhao Yue, deputy head of the Beijing Environment Protection Monitoring Center, said cold air from Friday helped blow away “hazardous” pollution persisting in the air due to week-long smoggy weather.

However, he pointed out Saturday’s PM2.5 reading can only vouch for air quality in Xicheng district, where the city’s only PM2.5 monitoring station was set up.

He said local authorities plan to build a citywide network of PM2.5 monitoring stations by the end of this year.

Zhao did not give the exact number of stations to be built. But the city currently has set up 27 PM10 monitoring stations to provide real-time data covering in the whole city.

Yu Jianhua, an air official with the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said the city government has spent 10 years taking aggressive air pollution control measures, including eliminating heavy-polluting vehicles and using clean energy for heating, in the hope of meeting the national PM10 standard of 100 micrograms per cubic meter of air. However, the average PM10 reading last year still hung at 120 micrograms.

Although the national standard on classifying the PM2.5 reading has yet to come out, public hearings by China’s environment ministry earlier this month suggested the future national PM2.5 standard may be set at 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air on average a year.

Yu said PM2.5 on average accounts for less than half of the PM10 concentrations. It means, under the present air-quality conditions, Beijing’s average PM2.5 rating could not meet the pending national standard.

He said research showed that 50 percent of the total PM2.5 particles in the air are contributed by automobile exhausts, and another 23 percent are brought by floating dust.

Beijing’s geological situation means that air pollution is likely. The city sits in a plain area surrounded by mountains in three sides, Yu explained.

He said the municipal government has laid down a series of measures to tighten air-pollution control. Among them, a primary target is to introduce a Euro 5 emission standard to replace the current Euro 4 by the end of the year pressuring auto makers to upgrade products to reduce emission discharge.

Beijing has 5 million vehicles on road, meaning urban traffic is very congested. Experts say vehicle emissions contain more fine particles when automobiles drive at low speed.

Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1176892/1/.html
Asia Pacific News

China sets pace for smoggy Hong Kong: think-tank
Posted: 15 January 2012 1349 hrs

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HONG KONG: Beijing’s decision to come clean on its dirty air has embarrassed
Hong Kong, where smog kills hundreds of people a year, hurts business and
drives away talent, a think-tank has said.

Mike Kilburn, head of environmental strategy at non-profit group Civic
Exchange, said Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s failure to fix the
city’s air quality could have far-reaching consequences for its
competitiveness.

“The Hong Kong government must introduce new air quality objectives
immediately, especially now that China has put out its own air quality
objective,” he told AFP.

“Hong Kong is in a highly embarrassing position now that China has
introduced new measures.”

Beijing last week bowed to a vocal online campaign for a change in the way
air quality is measured and pledged to start publishing figures showing the
smallest, most dangerous pollution particles.

The Chinese capital currently bases its air quality information on particles
of 10 micrometres or larger, known as PM10, and does not take into account
the smaller particulates that experts say are most harmful to human health.

The Beijing Environmental Bureau said it would provide hourly updates of
measurements of particles of 2.5 micrometres or less, known as PM2.5, ahead
of the Lunar New Year on January 23.

The mainland authorities’ move came after Hong Kong’s Environmental
Protection Department said roadside pollution levels in the southern
financial hub were the worst ever last year.

Measurements in the Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok districts indicated
that pollution levels were 10 times worse than in 2005 on more than one day
out of every five.

A recent ranking of cities by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in respect
of PM2.5 placed Hong Kong — which competes with Singapore as Asia’s banking
powerhouse — at 559th out of 566 cities.

That dire outcome sparked searching questions to Environment Secretary
Edward Yau in the legislative council last week.

Lawmaker Kam Nai-wai asked whether the government would “assume political
responsibility” for failing to live up to promises to update Hong Kong’s air
quality objectives (AQOs), set in 1987, to meet modern health standards.

Yau responded that PM2.5 samplers would be operational in all monitoring
stations in Hong Kong by the first quarter of 2012, and laid much of the
blame for the small-particle pollution on “regions outside Hong Kong”.

“The government is now working on the final proposal to update the AQOs for
submission to the Legislative Council for deliberation as soon as possible,”
he said.

Yau said clean-air measures had to be “generally supported by the
community”, a likely reference to public opposition to higher transport
costs and resistance from business owners to tighter environmental controls.

A report by Civic Action released Thursday said ageing diesel commercial
vehicles, LPG-powered taxis and minibuses were the main sources of pollution
in the city’s “street canyons” of office towers and apartment buildings.

Air quality is not only damaging residents’ health, it is also eroding the
city’s competitiveness as a regional centre for business and finance, it
said.

The report cited pollution-related questions over infrastructure projects
including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau (HKZM) bridge and a planned third
runway at Hong Kong airport.

An official study last year found that the runway would have to operate at
less than half capacity if new air quality standards were implemented.

Surveys showed that “air pollution is driving those who form the base of
Hong Kong’s knowledge and finance-based economy — the wealthiest and best
educated — to leave,” it said.

“The challenges to the HKZM Bridge and the third runway represent a dramatic
escalation in the scale of the problem. The business community is beginning
to appreciate the seriousness of this threat,” it said.

Tsang’s seven-year rule, which is due to end in March, can be measured in
terms of the more than 7,200 smog-related deaths recorded since he took
power in 2005, Kilburn said.

The figures are backed up by the Hedley Environmental Index run by the
medical faculty at the University of Hong Kong.

“It’s a shockingly high number. What we are concerned about is the lack of
urgency,” he said Friday, when a pall of toxic airborne particles made it it
barely possible to see across the city’s Victoria Harbour.

The think-tank’s air quality “report card” said the government had
implemented various measures to control pollution, but these had been
ineffective in the absence of a coordinated clean-air policy.

“Without tight standards, polluting businesses in Hong Kong, especially
vehicle and vessel owners and operators, have been permitted to remain
unregulated for the last two decades,” it said.

– AFP/cc

South China Morning Post – 13 Jan 2012

Authorities in smog-plagued Beijing yesterday began releasing hourly readings of three major air pollutants, in an apparent bid to appease residents angry about the government’s prolonged secrecy over the city’s deteriorating air quality.

The move coincided with a pledge by Mayor Guo Jinlong to tackle smog-causing pollutants, notably PM2.5 – hazardous fine respirable particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns – and ozone.

Guo also promised to publish hourly PM2.5 data this year, after a national outcry sparked by persistent smog in major cities since October.

However, environmentalists pointed out that health-threatening pollutants PM2.5 and ozone were still absent from the pollution disclosure.

Pollution readings of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM10 – large particles less than 10 microns in diameter – are now on a local government-sponsored website of the Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre. Before yesterday, only daily pollution readings were published.

It comes just a day after local authorities banned media coverage of PM2.5, after apparently being embarrassed by pollution at the start of a government conference. Smog hit Beijing on Tuesday morning, coinciding with the opening of this year’s session of the Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Pan Shiyi , a property tycoon and congress representative, was confused by the media ban, which came as PM2.5 apparently became the focal point at the meeting.

“Air quality concerns everyone, and that’s exactly what congress representatives should discuss,” he said.

He said releasing PM2.5 data was the start of the process of educating the public about the reality of pollution levels. “Everyone can help tackle the problem after we know how serious the pollution has become.”

South China Morning Post – 13 Jan 2012

Think tank Civic Exchange says mainland is more aggressive in moving to tackle smog, which has put pressure on city to act on standards for particles

Hong Kong is lagging behind the mainland when it comes to tackling air pollution, a think tank says in a summary of Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s performance in office.

The conclusion from Civic Exchange came after the environment minister said on Wednesday that the city would measure pollutants smaller than 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5) at all its monitoring stations by March, a week after Beijing pledged to make similar data publicly available.

Former lawmaker Christine Loh Kung-wai, of Civic Exchange, said the mainland’s recent launch of a consultation to upgrade air quality objectives had put pressure on the Hong Kong government, which had yet to update its 24-year-old objectives despite Tsang’s pledge to do so last year.

“The mainland is much more aggressive than Hong Kong in dealing with setting air quality objectives,” she said. “This has happened because Hong Kong’s senior officials lack the understanding and courage to set demanding [objectives] and to use them as a tool to address the epidemic of public health impacts.”

Beijing will publish its PM2.5 data by January 23, Xinhua reported last week. The announcement came after the US embassy in Beijing began releasing its own PM2.5 readings via Twitter.

Civic Exchange’s head of environmental strategy, Mike Kilburn, said though many mainland cities would take years to reach the new emissions targets – released recently for public consultation – the central government had set targets with the aim of driving down pollution levels.

By contrast, Hong Kong set less stringent targets that were easier to achieve, perhaps for political reasons, Kilburn said.

Citing figures from the University of Hong Kong’s Hedley Environmental Index, Loh said more than 7,200 local deaths had been connected to air pollution in the seven years Tsang had been at the city’s helm.

Dr Wong Ming-chit, of the School of Public Health at HKU, agreed with the group’s conclusion that the administration’s ability and commitment to improve air quality – roadside and shipping pollution in particular – was questionable.

“These are problems that haven’t been solved for many years. And these are pressing issues because people’s health is at stake,” he said. “When you think about it, several thousands deaths is a big number. The public panic even when several people die from bird flu.”

The Environmental Protection Department last week revealed that roadside air pollution levels last year were the worst on record.

A consultation on updating Hong Kong’s standards ended two years ago and the government vowed to put the new objectives before the legislature as soon as possible.

PM2.5 refers to suspended particles of 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter. They are smaller and more dangerous to health than PM10, for which the department publishes measurements on its website.

These smaller particles enter the lungs and contribute to many health problems including acute respiratory symptoms and child bronchitis, cause premature death owing to their toxicity, and cause cardiovascular illnesses, according to various studies.

adrian.wan@scmp.com