{"id":4397,"date":"2017-03-29T12:33:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T04:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/?p=4397"},"modified":"2020-07-20T13:37:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T05:37:48","slug":"chengdu-pollution-bad-as-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/blog\/chengdu-pollution-bad-as-beijing\/","title":{"rendered":"Chengdu\u2019s PM2.5 Now as Bad as Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s nerd Christmas! The US Embassy&#8217;s 2016 PM2.5 data just came out. And there&#8217;s a surprise in the data from Beijing and the US Consulate in Chengdu:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4402 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-Average-EN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"577\" height=\"456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-Average-EN.jpg 577w, https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-Average-EN-300x237.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 577px) 100vw, 577px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chengdu just barely edged out Beijing for highest PM2.5. I had to go out to two decimal places to find that difference.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Bad is That?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>OK, so how bad is that exactly?\u00a0Here\u2019s that same graph with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/mediacentre\/factsheets\/fs313\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the World Health Organization&#8217;s health limits<\/a> on top.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4403 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-Average-WHO-EN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"555\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-Average-WHO-EN.jpg 555w, https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-Average-WHO-EN-300x249.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 555px) 100vw, 555px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not pretty. Chengdu\u00a0averages\u00a0about three times the 24-hour limit of 25 micrograms. Bad days can easily go to 10 times that level.<\/p>\n<p>But really we should look at the annual limit of 10 micrograms because studies show that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.euro.who.int\/en\/health-topics\/environment-and-health\/air-quality\/publications\/2013\/review-of-evidence-on-health-aspects-of-air-pollution-revihaapinterim-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">even levels below 25 micrograms are harmful to human health<\/a>. On that standard, Chengdu averages seven times the safe limit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Did It Get That Bad?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All right, I played a bit of a trick there. It\u2019s a trick because Chengdu was just as bad in 2015. It\u2019s just that Beijing\u2019s PM2.5 came down, while Chengdu stayed the same.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4404 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-vs-Beijing-EN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"666\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-vs-Beijing-EN.jpg 666w, https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Chengdu-vs-Beijing-EN-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 666px) 100vw, 666px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The data shows that Chengdu\u2019s air pollution has been dangerous for at least four years (probably a lot longer), but awareness has just started catching up recently\u2014particularly in 2016.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Does Chengdu Compare to Other Major Cities?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I analyzed PM2.5 data from all of the US Embassies and Consulates across China. That data shows Chengdu and Beijing are at the top of the pollution rankings. PM2.5 has been coming down, but no major Chinese city has safe air.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4405 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Major-chinese-cities.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"582\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Major-chinese-cities.jpg 764w, https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Major-chinese-cities-300x229.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 764px) 100vw, 764px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So if you\u2019re in Chengdu, Beijing, or elsewhere, protect your lungs!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s nerd Christmas! The US Embassy&#8217;s 2016 PM2.5 data just came out. And there&#8217;s a surprise in the data from Beijing and the US Consulate in Chengdu: Chengdu just barely edged out Beijing for highest PM2.5. I had to go out to two decimal places to find that difference. How &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Chengdu\u2019s PM2.5 Now as Bad as Beijing\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/blog\/chengdu-pollution-bad-as-beijing\/#more-4397\" aria-label=\"Read more about Chengdu\u2019s PM2.5 Now as Bad as Beijing\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1035,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,257],"tags":[75,204,74],"class_list":["post-4397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-pollution","category-pm2-5","tag-beijing","tag-chengdu","tag-pm2-5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1035"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4397"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11498,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4397\/revisions\/11498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}