This article is a part of a series 'China coal' a series of stories on China's energy future based on our analysis and research in the region.
As air pollution in China's major cities reached dangerous levels at the turn of the year Greenpeace researchers equipped a group of volunteers with equipment to monitor what they were inhaling. The results will add to a mounting public health debate over the future of coal.
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Beijing’s “airpocalypse” in last December and January was an exceptionally serious air pollution episode that is estimated to have caused a 3-fold increase in hospitalizations due to respiratory diseases and has drawn comparisons to London smog in 1952.
In that time Greenpeace recruited 16 volunteers to wear a personal air pollution sampler several days each. The samplers simulate human breathing by drawing in air through a nozzle near the volunteer’s head, at a rate close to human breathing. They capture the smallest and most dangerous particles, known as PM2.5, into a filter that can then be sent to a laboratory for analysis.
One of the 16 volunteers with
the sampler simulating human breathing. Copyright: Greenpeace.
A fine particle filter showing the pollution captured in
24 hours Copyright: Greenpeace
The first thing we realized when we started the research was that the sampler actually enables you to see the pollution. The filters reveal the amount of toxic particles that enter your lungs during a single day in Beijing.
Then we got the results from the lab. In the filter were small amounts of arsenic, mercury, lead and selenium, a neurotoxic and potentially disease inducing cocktail. The results are not pretty, and reveal clues to the reasons behind China’s lung cancer epidemic. The WHO recently released the results of a massive research project into what is making us sick, pointing out air pollution as the biggest environmental health risk in the world. The research estimated that 20% of lung cancer cases in China are caused by outdoor air pollution.
Zhong Yu, a marathon runner, is one of the volunteers who had her personal air pollution exposure tested. She was shocked to find out that her samples contained arsenic levels exceeding the national standard: ”No matter how good the training shoes you have, how nice the clothes you have, how good the coach you can hire; but without good air, and running with a mask, the meaning of running is gone.”
The dramatic air pollution problem is creating a lot of pressure to reduce coal consumption, changing the political landscape. A key source of PM2.5 pollution and the detected toxic metals is coal-burning – all the detected toxic metals are emitted by coal and more coal is burned within 600km of Beijing than in all of the U.S.
Without addressing the massive and growing regional and national coal consumption, there is little chance of bringing the air pollution problem under control. While far from a done deal, a coal consumption peak within this decade has entered the political debate - with potential implications on China's greenhouse gas emissions.
As the preparation of China’s next five-year plan, covering the period 2015-2020, is bound to begin in earnest later this year, the pressure to control air pollution and coal consumption could have far-reaching impacts.
A full version of this article by Lauri can be found on the Greenpeace blog.
