Air Pollution in China

China's environmental protection ministry published a report in 2010 which showed that about a third of 113 cities surveyed failed to meet national air standards. According to Chinese government sources, about a fifth of urban Chinese breath heavily polluted air. Many places smell like high-sulfur coal and leaded gasoline. The air quality of Beijing is 16 times worse than New York City.

One of the main causes is the many industries, metal smelters, and coal-fired power plants which causes smog. This spews tons of carbon, metals, gases, and soot into the air. However, these industries are essential for China’s fast- growing industries. Sometimes you can't even see building a few blocks away and blue sky is a rare sight. In Shanghai sometimes you can't see the street from the 5th floor window.

 Beijing on a good and bad day

Especially in urban areas like Beijing and Shanghai, where more industries are situated at, air pollution and smog in are sometimes so bad that the airports are shut down because of poor visibility. Once the airport shuts down, many problems will arise as there is an inconvenience in transport. Many people will not be able to travel out of China that way, and this delays their activities. Also, if the airport shuts down because of air pollution, the productivity and efficiency of the people will be affected. Also, the working force who cannot travel according to their schedule will be greatly affected and as this leads to economic decline.

The amount of airborne suspended particulates in Northern China is almost 20 times above the considered safe level. This results in many people getting lung cancer in areas like Benxi where there is the highest rate of lung cancer in China. To add on, many people, especially men, in China smoke. Smoking which might result in lung cancer plus the serious air pollution could be detrimental to the country’s health in general. 300,000 die each year from ambient air pollution, mostly from heart disease and lung cancer, the leading cause of death in China. An additional 110,000 die from illnesses related to indoor pollution from poorly ventilated wood and coal stoves and toxic fumes from shoddy construction material. In addition, these numbers are expected to rise.

The countries air is in such a bad state that the engines of Chinese airlines have to be overhauled and replaced more frequently than elsewhere because operating in Chinese air corrodes the turbine blades faster. This also means that a lot of revenue has to be invested into the consequences of air pollution which is a disadvantage to China.

The air pollution also affects tourism in negative ways. Before the 2008 Olympics found that 74 percent of the Chinese interviewed said they were concerned about air pollution. in lanzhou, where breathing was almost equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day