Spring is in full bloom, and that means “April Snow” is at its peak. But what exactly is this white fluff in the air? The white fluff in the air is a combination of pollen and catkin. Most people know what pollen is – a fine powdery substance of microscopic grains discharged from flowers. The […]
Category: Masks
Are Japanese Pitta Masks effective for use in China?
It’s allergy season again. Spring is here, and the catkin white fluff is in the air! Lately, I’ve noticed many people wearing these Pitta masks out on the streets of Beijing. They look sleek, but I wondered whether they actually work. After all, data shows that Japan’s air quality is much better than China’s, so it’s possible that they were designed for things other than […]
Hong Kong’s air quality might not be as good as you think
Hong Kong doesn’t come to mind when you say the words ‘air pollution’. However, I just analyzed data on Hong Kong’s PM2.5 pollution and found that PM2.5 air quality levels averaged 30 micrograms in 2018. What does that mean for Hong Kong’s air quality? Based on this data from Berkeley Earth, Hong Kong averages three […]
This One Region in China Saw a Pollution Miracle in 2018
New analysis from Smart Air shows that China is making progress on its “war on air pollution.” PM2.5 air pollution was down in 14 out of China’s 15 largest cities. Yet one region saw far more progress than the rest. South Sees Modest Air Quality Gains In southern China, from Shanghai to Shenzhen, […]
Did Beijing’s Air Get Better in 2018?
Analyzing new air quality data, Smart Air found that Beijing’s PM2.5 dropped 14% in 2018 compared to the year before. Despite the improvement, Beijing still averages nearly five times the World Health Organization’s annual limit. Improvement Came Mostly from Winter Enforcement By breaking down the data month by month, analysis shows that the air quality […]
How do people in Beijing exercise with such bad air pollution?
I’m in Beijing right now, and I’m going to exercise today. So what can I do when the world outside my window looks like this? Would exercise do more harm than good? 1. The point where exercise becomes harmful Researchers at Cambridge analyzed studies on the benefits of exercise and the harms of air […]
Can pollution masks help with India’s air pollution?
Every year when winter rolls around, a billion people in India are left breathing toxic, polluted air when on the streets. Be it in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata or Hyderabad, everyone is forced to become experts in a complicated scientific question to cope with the pollution: Do pollution masks work? I’ve heard doubts from smart, skeptical […]
Protect Yourself From Cities With Bad Air Pollution: A Beginner’s Guide
So you’ve found yourself a city with bad air polluted – perhaps you’re in Beijing, Bangalore or Bangkok? Or try Delhi, Ulaanbaatar or Shanghai? What can you do to keep air pollution from trimming years off your life? When I moved to China in 2007, I wasn’t a dummy. I was a college grad, and […]
Do Pollution Masks Really Work?
When a billion people in China (and quite a few expats) woke up to the severe air pollution in almost every city in China, it forced a billion people to become experts in a complicated scientific question: Do masks work? Since then, I’ve given talks with hundreds of people all around China about how to protect […]
NPR got these facts about masks wrong
As wildfires were raging across the American West this summer, NPR ran a story on pollution masks people can use to protect themselves from all that air pollution. As a non-expert nerd who has dedicated years to understanding how to live under Beijing’s particulate cloud, I was eager to see what the story got right […]