Mon May 4, 2015
BY Chung-Ming Liu
UCLA Visiting Scientist
For China and the world, "Under the Dome" likes thunder stunning heard. It direct breaks over one billion Chinese people's fear of the haze, and awakens the most worried nightmare in human's mind: There is a price accompanying with wealth!
In light of her child's pain, Ms. Jing Chai motivates herself to pursue truth. With intensified studies and testimonies of many experts and scholars, Ms. Chai has made her best effort to let the world understand the causes and impacts of haze. No matter whether the Central Government of China agrees with Ms. Chai's practice or not, strict air pollution control means are following up already. In the meantime, accompanied by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, Ms. Chai was listed as one of the "Annual Global 100 most influential people" in the United States Time magazine in April 2015.
The phenomenon of haze is similar to fog which affects mainly visibility. However, the composition of haze contains not only water vapor but also some particulate matters. If coarse particles such as sand dominate, it reaches the dust haze level. The most severe dust storms can travel across Pacific. As to the burning of straws, smoke haze would appear as those affecting Taiwan's highway safety in July every year and those in November over southcentral Taiwan affecting seriously the air quality of a wide area.
The main ingredient of haze is fine particles which may enter human body through the respiratory tract, affect directly the internal organs, and damage personal health. Haze generally occurs mainly in the cities with suspended particulate matters of sulfate, nitrate, and bicarbonate compounds generated through photosynthesis of air pollutants emitted by vehicles. Besides dust and other fine particles, haze also contains carbon-containing particles emitted from incomplete combustion of fuels.
Major cities in Taiwan also observe high fine particle concentration, but the current EPA air quality standard still focuses on particles with less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) not on particles with a diameter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). In terms of PM10, the air quality in Taiwan has improved for a long period of time, but in terms of PM2.5, with the US standard, the haze problems in Taiwan's major cities are not better than mainland cities. In short, over the central and southern Taiwan, in spring and fall each year, air quality in more than half of the days does not meet the standard for Americans to breathe unless factories are closed and traffics are stopped.
Haze in mainland China during spring and winter, contains not only the pollutants from motor vehicles but also factory pollutants, with the participation of fog over a large area. In spring, advection fog from the eastern ocean mixes with air pollutants to form slow-moving large-area haze. In winter, radiation fog with stagnant air caused by cold high in cooperation with the morning traffic jams, form a haze that endangers the health of the majority of workers. Due to the high concentrations of PM2.5 and a long lasting affecting period, the potential hazards of haze to the public health are very serious, but the exact figure may not be clarified until a long time passed.
Ms. Chai suspects that haze may affect the unborn fetus in pregnant women, resulting in tumor and tumor-bearing potential. Such a possibility is there, but it still needs public health experts to gather information for a long period of time to confirm. Currently, American and European studies confirm that haze affects the respiratory tract and increase the chances of asthma attacks. Also, haze affects more on cardiovascular adverse and increase the probability of heart attack. In terms of simplified analysis perspective, residents of the region with a high concentration of PM2.5 tend to live shorter than residents in regions with better air quality. The World Health Organization (WHO) cited the European research data (http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/189051/Health-effects-of-particulate-matter-final-Eng.pdf ) and pointed out that an improved PM2.5 annual average concentrations ensures a longer life span.
In fact, the most painful crux that the "Under the Dome" has touched in the heart of ever viewer is: if it is not for making more money, why would people go to work in the middle of haze? Why people do not move away from polluted cities quickly? Even worse is: every employee going to work are intensifying the severity of haze; and every resident living in the area contributes to worsen the haze problem and to form a long life malignant tumor in China’s major cities. That is: there is a price accompanying with wealth!
Why Taiwanese cannot breathe high standard air as Americans do? Why the rapid economic growth in China must also endure the threat of haze? These are the pain that we have to go through in the process of pursuing economic growth. In the past, Pittsburgh was a steel-producing city with very serious air pollution problems. Now, Pittsburgh barely observes smoking chimneys and is with air meeting the air quality standards constantly. Many factories are now transformed into tourist attractions. It is because of industrial reform that steel mills are now moved to mainland China. With sufficient production capacity, steel price can be down to the level that the US businessmen can accept even including the long-range shipping charge. Of course, the United States will no longer need these local factories, and hence the air quality is improved.
Taiwan has been stuck in the process of industrial transform for many years. China will need to strengthen its air pollution control and hope to drive down air pollution. As to making a significant industrial transform, China still has a long way to go. In the future, there may still be more Ms. Chai to come forward with a variety of means to awaken the public to face the haze problem and to urge the government to actively solve the problem, but if it is not for economic growth, many fundamental problems are still with no solution.
For example, in Taiwan, when the United States began pushing PM2.5 regulation in 1997, many academic and environmental groups have urged the Taiwan EPA to actively strengthen similar controls. At least, the air quality standard should be changed in Taiwan, so that people would know how hazard every breath of air is. However, after nearly two decades, China and many countries have already done what Taiwan's academic and environmental communities have expected, but the Taiwan EPA is still hiding facts from the public. It really makes people speechless. The key concern of Taiwan EPA is: if the control PM2.5 has been strengthened, it may impact the fragile high-polluting industries and the transportation sector in Taiwan, and then Taiwan's economy.
In the past two springs, France, Britain, and nearby countries in Europe are also facing the threat of a large-area haze pollution. Paris has therefore stopped high-polluting vehicles from entering during air pollution alert period, and the results have proved to be very effective on suppressing the PM2.5 pollution. If Taiwan has changed the current air quality standard and releases PM2.5 air pollution-related alerts, Taiwan will be forced to take a similar approach. Clearly, Taiwan EPA is not ready for such responsibility.
The pursuit of economic growth, facing the threat of air pollution, releasing real information, strengthening air pollution control, triggering economic restructuring, and improving the overall quality of the environment, this is a cycle that we cannot avoid. "Under the Dome" let Chinese people, enterprise and the central government reconsider their role in the control of haze. I wonder whether Taiwanese people, enterprise and the central government realize the situation that faced by each of them?