{"id":7262,"date":"2019-01-14T15:34:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T07:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/?p=7262"},"modified":"2020-07-15T11:57:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T03:57:58","slug":"did-chinas-air-get-better-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/blog\/did-chinas-air-get-better-in-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Did China\u2019s Air Get Better in 2018?"},"content":{"rendered":"

New data analysis from Smart Air shows that air quality improved in 14 out China\u2019s 15 largest cities. This data suggests China\u2019s \u201cwar on air\u00a0pollution<\/a>\u201d seems to be working.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"PM2.5<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This analysis uses over 21,000 daily average PM2.5 data points from official sensors around the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beijing<\/h3>\n

Famous for its smog, Beijing\u2019s quality improved 14% over 2017. That year was already Beijing\u2019s cleanest on record<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Beijing<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chengdu<\/h3>\n

Chengdu\u2019s PM2.5 fell 12%, following <\/span>a 15% decrease the year before<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Chengdu<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Xi\u2019an<\/h3>\n

Xi\u2019an has finally seen some improvement. In 2017, Xi\u2019an\u2019s pollution was up 7%. In 2018, Xi\u2019an saw pollution fall 17%.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Xi'an<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most of Xi\u2019an\u2019s improvement came in January and February. Air quality has been roughly similar to the prior year since then.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Xi'an<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harbin<\/h3>\n

The biggest improvement happened in China\u2019s northeast. Harbin saw the largest decrease in PM2.5, down 32%.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Harbin<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harbin\u2019s air quality improvement came mostly in the winter. The northeast may have been slow to receive the benefits from <\/span>last year\u2019s switch of winter heating<\/span><\/a> from coal to natural gas.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"harbin<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last winter, there were <\/span>reports of natural gas shortages<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>delays<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>as the sudden switch rolled out, particularly in places farther from Beijing. As these supply difficulties decreased, Harbin\u2019s air has caught up with Beijing.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shenyang<\/h3>\n

The improved roll out of natural gas winter heating could also explain Shenyang\u2019s 19% improvement in air quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Shenyang<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shanghai<\/h3>\n

Farther south\u2014outside the range of winter heating\u2014air quality improvement has been smaller. Shanghai air quality also improved in 2018, albeit at a more modest pace of 8%.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Shanghai<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shenzhen<\/h3>\n

Similar to Shanghai, Shenzhen\u2019s air pollution was down 9%.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Shenzhen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Guangzhou<\/h3>\n

Guangzhou\u2019s PM2.5 fell a smaller amount, just 3%.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Guangzhou<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chongqing<\/h3>\n

Chongqing saw air quality improve 15% over 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Chongqing<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite Progress, China\u2019s Air is Still Toxic<\/h3>\n

Despite the improvement,\u00a0all 15 cities are far above <\/span>the World Health Organization\u2019s annual limit<\/span><\/a>. Even China\u2019s cleanest major city, Shenzhen, averages over twice the limit. Simply put, anyone living in any of China\u2019s major cities is breathing harmful air on an average day.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"PM2.5<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This limit matters because studies have shown that PM2.5 <\/span>raises blood pressure<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>inflammation<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>rates of heart attacks and strokes<\/span><\/a>. This is true <\/span>even at PM2.5 levels 50% below<\/span><\/a> the lowest average in China.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Residents across China may need to hold their breath before their cities catch up with major cities in the developed world. Compared to cities like Tokyo, New York, and London, China still lags far behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"major<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Studies Document Protective Effects of Purifiers, Masks<\/h3>\n

Despite the harms of PM2.5, studies have found that <\/span>wearing masks prevents harmful effects on blood pressure and heart rate variability<\/span><\/a>. Similarly, placebo-controlled studies of air purifiers have found that reducing particulate in the home <\/span>prevents harm to blood pressure<\/span><\/a>, inflammation, and immune response\u2014even among young, <\/span>healthy twenty-year-olds<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Smart Air is a certified B Corp committed to combating the myths big companies use to artificially inflate the price of clean air. To help people living in polluted cities protect themselves, Smart Air provides <\/span>empirically backed<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>no-nonsense purifiers and masks<\/span><\/a>, thereby helping to lower the cost of clean air.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New data analysis from Smart Air shows that air quality improved in 14 out China\u2019s 15 largest cities. This data suggests China\u2019s \u201cwar on air\u00a0pollution\u201d seems to be working.     This analysis uses over 21,000 daily average PM2.5 data points from official sensors around the country.\u00a0   Beijing Famous … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1035,"featured_media":7278,"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":[17,260,257],"tags":[278,75,204,316,55,315,74,226,210,317,215],"class_list":["post-7262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air-pollution","category-air-pollution-health-effects","category-pm2-5","tag-air-quality","tag-beijing","tag-chengdu","tag-chongqing","tag-guangzhou","tag-harbin","tag-pm2-5","tag-shanghai","tag-shenyang","tag-shenzhen","tag-xian","resize-featured-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7262","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=7262"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11564,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7262\/revisions\/11564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}