beijing: the city where you can't escape smog - indoor air purifier

The Chinese capital is notorious for long-term pollution.
John Sudworth says it's hard to find clean air even indoors.
I have closed most of my windows and now I have started installing air conditioning vents.
The purpose is simple-
Turn off the outside toxic air leakage to every access point of our Beijing residence. Even our double.
The glass windows can't stop the smog.
The most dangerous component, particulate matter less than 2.
5 microns in diameter-or PM2.
As we all know --
Find a way through the smallest gap in the window closing.
So the only solution is tape. It's like a re-
The release of a 1970 government information film about surviving the nuclear holocaust.
It's just that what we're trying to stop is not radiation, but the fallout from fossil fuels.
The most useful equipment in our armory is our PM2. 5 monitor.
We had two, one upstairs and one downstairs, which we often saw, and it was their arrival that caused the fever of recording and ventilation --
This is not included until today.
When I first came to China five years ago, there was no way for our family to monitor air quality.
Like everyone else, we turn a blind eye to what our air purifier is doing.
They don't seem right now.
Even in the days when pollution is serious, it is difficult for us to get pm2. 5.
Less than 25 micrograms per cubic meter, the World Health Organization's highest standard for safe air.
This is the multiple purifiers running at full speed, the big box-
Like a machine in every corner of the room. two in some -
The noise output of this combination is similar to living in the cabin of the aircraft carrier.
The problem of air pollution in China is so serious now that more than one million people die prematurely every year and life expectancy is significantly shortened.
An average of about five years. in the worst-
Affected areas
Over the past few weeks, air pollution has been particularly severe and persistent, with Beijing's average air quality well above 200 micrograms PM2.
5 capsules per cubic meter-
Many times the maximum safety limit.
In the worst case, it's like house arrest, and our children are limited for days in a row to a small, deafening but breathable indoor space in our home.
Smog has become a major topic on social media in China, where people track air pollution through mobile apps.
A group of Beijing mothers, with their own pm2. 5.
5 counters, even roaming the city, looking for shopping malls or cafes that filter the air
Then share their findings online.
Of course, human dependence on oil and coal existed long before China's economic rise.
But China's vision for environmental degradation far outweighs peas --
London or Manchester in the 1950 s.
For the most part of the past month, the toxic air cloud hanging over the country has extended thousands of miles, a huge continent --
The ash-sized cocktails from coal-fired power plants and car exhaust smothered hundreds of millions of lives and filled their lungs.
While more and more people are aware that this means that more of them are now taking action to protect their health, many others are either not fully aware of the dangers or have no way to do a lot about them.
A new set of filters for an air purifier may cost £ 100 ($120)
Or more, it needs to change every six months or so.
Of course, this is not just a problem made in China.
Smartphones, computers, TV screens, jeans and shoes that have sprung up from factories in the past few decades are, at least to some extent, cheap, it is because they are made without environmental protection.
The interests of the rich world and the irresponsible Chinese communist elite are closely linked.
Western countries are getting cheap consumer demand, and China is getting rich without independent censorship, regulation or democratic oversight of other markets.
The real cost is measured based on my pollution monitoring data, which is a disproportional cost borne by ordinary Chinese.
Recently, after a crackdown on a rare pollution protest in downtown Chengdu, a blogger dared to speak out to protesters.
Police should remember, he suggested, that the elites they protect have sent their families overseas to breathe clean air.
He was soon detained.
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