http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/8236408/Canned-air-for-sale-in-China-as-smog-returns

Canned air for sale in China as smog returns

A Chinese entrepreneur is selling fresh air in soft drinks cans, similar to bottled drinking water, as north China is once again choking in toxic smog.

The concentration of airborne PM 2.5 particulates – the smallest and most deadly – went off the chart in the early hours of this morning for the second time this month, according to pollution gauge at the American Embassy in Beijing.

The Air Quality Index, designed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, cannot cope with levels beyond 500, which is 20 times the World Health Organisation air quality standard.

The embassy gauge had been hovering in the merely “hazardous” 300-500 range since Friday.

Chen Guangbiao, whose wealth is valued at $740 million according to the Hurun Report, sells his cans of air for five yuan each.

It comes with atmospheric flavours including pristine Tibet, post-industrial Taiwan and revolutionary Yan’an, the Communist Party’s early base area.

Chen said he wanted to make a point that China’s air was turning so bad that the idea of bottled fresh air is no longer fanciful.

“If we don’t start caring for the environment then after 20 or 30 years our children and grandchildren might be wearing gas masks and carry oxygen tanks,” said Chen.

Earlier this month the concentration of airborne PM 2.5 particulates in Beijing and other cities reached the highest levels since measurements began, which comparable to those recorded during the infamous ‘London Fog’.

The event dominated even state-controlled news outlets, hospitals reported a sharp rise in respiratory-related admissions and political leaders took emergency pollution-reduction measures and vowed to tackle the underlying problems.

Since then the Beijing skyline has remained mostly bleak, with readings consistently visibility dropping as low as 200 metres several times in the past few days.

NASA satellite photos show a thick grey haze has rendered the densely populated plains of North China invisible from outer space.

Wow – I remember the 1980s sci-fi spoof film Spaceballs -where they did that as a joke.

too slow – that’s exactly the scene!

wonder where he gets the fresh air from?

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-08/13/content_26214635_4.htm

Do-gooder blasted for selling canned air

According to Chen, the CEO of a resource recycling company, each can of fresh air collected from provinces and regions with little pollution, such as Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet in southwest and northwest China.

He said he is confident about its marketing prospects, since people in big cities inhale air mixed with vehicle exhaust every day and the fresh canned air is good for people’s health, he said over the weekend in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province at an event promoting environmental protection.

full story here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackperkowski/2013/01/21/air-quality-in-china/

The ink on the paper with my predictions for China was barely dry when what may become “the” story of 2013 came onto the scene—air quality. If I knew then what I know now, I would have had to have included a discussion about air quality.

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, particularly in the three or four months before August, Beijing’s air quality was in the news on a daily basis. While air pollution has remained a nagging problem since then, Beijingers have learned to live with the situation, and there have been enough blue sky days in the capital city to keep the Air Quality Index (AQI) out of the news—until last week that is.

Particulates less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM 2.5) are referred to as “fine” particulates and pose the greatest health risks because they are small enough to directly enter the lungs and the blood stream. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a formula to convert PM 2.5 readings into an AQI value that can help guide health-related decisions. For example, an AQI value of 50 represents good air quality with little potential to affect public health, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing publishes AQI values for Beijing and other cities in China, and the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection provides its own air quality data for cities throughout the country.

I’ve lived in Beijing for 20 years, and am generally unaffected by bad food, water or air. Even I noticed it last week, though, when the PM 2.5 AQI approached 900 micrograms per cubic meter. I read somewhere that it was like being in a forest fire — an apt description based on my experience.
Hospitals reported increases of up to 30 percent in the number of patients reporting breathing problems; visitors to China received warnings from their risk management departments; and everyone hit the app on their iPhone to check the latest AQI from the U.S. Embassy.

The recent bout of air pollution was exacerbated by weather patterns where the air simply did not move for days on end. Nonetheless, high levels of PM 2.5 particles are in the air due to rapid industrialization, more vehicles, coal burning for heat and power, and lax enforcement of environmental regulations.
———-

I’ve also read that some of this smog is reaching the west coast of the US, something like 30% of smog, at certain times, can be attributed to drift from china.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/toxic-air-blocks-out-the-sun-in-beijing-20130113-2cn72.html

The US Embassy service ran into political trouble in 2010 when the reading soared above 500, beyond its existing health categories, and operators resorted to a new label: “crazy bad”.

The Chinese Government complained about the US Embassy pollution data and told it to halt publication, with a Chinese official calling it confusing, socially de-stabilising and insulting, according to a US diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks.

Many Chinese citizens criticised authorities for prioritising the image of the Communist Party over public health, saying they had no choice but to base decisions on daily activities on the US measurement because the Chinese versions were misleading and untrustworthy.

Some days had been measured “beyond index” (or “crazy bad”) on the US index but “slightly polluted” on the official Chinese measure.

:)

BTW, we had as can of fresh mountain air from Katoomba (?) sitting around at home when I was a little sprog.

you could always have a powerful bong filtering out the crap in the air

a fan could drive air into a pool of water capturing the dirt and toxins.

whats left exiting the pool would be cleaner, periodically the pool would be chlorinated to destroy the crap

or you could just crack down on pollution

people just get used to it in the end

>>you could always have a powerful bong

Morning Wookie.

>>people just get used to it in the end

or die in huge numbers

Oh dear.

Now you tell me!