PRC AIR POLLUTION: HOW BAD IS IT?

A June 1998 report from U.S. Embassy Beijing

Summary: How bad is air pollution in China’s cities? Following a January 1997 State Council decision many big Chinese cities during 1997 began to make weekly (and now in Dalian and Shanghai daily) air quality reports using a uniquely Chinese air pollution index (API). Increasing openness on environmental problems now makes it possible to use these reports to assess the severity of China’s air pollution to which several Chinese studies attribute one million premature deaths each year. This report explains how to convert air pollution data expressed in API into pollutant concentrations comparable with foreign air quality data and the international scientific literature on air pollution and health. Weekly APIs for many Chinese cities for the three major pollutants -- total suspended particles (TSP), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrous oxides (NOx) are now published. Air pollution reporting varies according to local government policies. Shanghai reports all three pollutants daily while Beijing reports only the leading pollutant of the week while Guangzhou reports the top two out of three.

Establishing urban air quality comparability between China and the United States is difficult for several reasons. Although the PRC State Council has ordered most large Chinese cities plan to switch to daily air pollution reporting over the next year, at present most Chinese urban air reports are still weekly reports while daily air quality data is available in the United States. Levels of TSP and NOx are not easy to compare with the PM-10 particle (respirable particles 10 microns or less in diameter) and NO2 gas concentrations reported in the United States and referred to widely in the literature on air pollution epidemiology and health. Chinese researchers have found that the PM-10 concentration averages between 60 - 80 percent of the TSP concentration and that the NO2 level averages two-thirds of the NOx level. These ratios can vary widely by season and location. For example, the ratio of PM-10 to TSP is higher during the winter coal-burning season than it is during the Spring when large diameter non-respirable sand or loess soil particles blown East from Western China sometimes makes North China TSP concentrations climb sharply.

Dalian and Shanghai in mid May became the first of a large number of Chinese cities expected to switch to daily air pollution reporting and even pollution prediction over the next year. The great differences in the way each city presents its weekly air pollution reports and local environmental monitoring capacity illustrates the gap between central government environmental policy and implementation by local governments. Enforcing environmental regulatons on and gathering reliable data on the township and village industries which according to a December 1997 PRC government report produce half of China's pollution is very difficult. About forty percent of the small, highly polluting plants on the Huai River delta closed down by order of the State Council in 1996 have re-opened. In May 1998 the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) ordered tougher enforcement and set enforcement performance standards for local environmental protection bureaus. Rising concern among the general public about the health effects of air and water pollution will likely raise the importance of environmental issues on the Chinese agenda. Perhaps even more importantly, an environmental aware public willing to report polluters will help overcome some of the difficulties the central environmental authorities have in getting information about local environmental situations and seeing that the environmental laws and regulations are actually enforced in China’s cities, towns and villages. A bibliography of Chinese and English language sources on air pollution and health in China as well as translations of weekly Beijing and national air pollution reports and a map showing the locations of Beijing air quality monitoring stations are appended to this report. End summary.

To Understand Air Pollution First Establish Comparability

Air quality information is reported differently in China than in many other countries. This is partly because although China has been monitoring air quality throughout the country for two decades and the 1989 Environmental Law calls for regular environmental quality reports by all levels of government, only recently has secrecy began to fade in the environmental field. On January 21, 1997 the PRC State Council accepted the report “Suggestions on the Development of Air Pollution Prediction Work in Some Cities” from the PRC Environmental Monitoring Center and ordered that many larger Chinese cities began weekly air pollution reports during 1997. With the release of weekly air quality data, much better information on current levels of air pollution in Chinese cities has become available to Chinese citizens. Weekly air quality reports are made using a uniquely Chinese Air Pollution Index (API) which combines for each pollutant concentration weighted for health effects at different concentrations to provide a guide to air quality. A single Chinese API index reflects the concentration and health effect of a single pollutant. By contrast, some of the pollution indexes used in the U.S. combine several pollutants into a single index and so are not directly comparable to a Chinese API. The API and the 1996 PRC Ambient Air Quality Standard were described in a previous report (see appendices one and two; on Embassy ES&T section web page as “Severe Beijing Air Pollution Information Emerges”). The weekly release of APIs to the Chinese media has stimulated interest among the public and according to Chinese environmentalists, Chinese leaders as well, about air quality. Chinese weekly air reports can be found on the Internet.

Chinese Air Pollution Reports Available on the World Wide Web

The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) lists the daily Shanghai reports (in English) at http://www.envir.online.sh.cn/eng/airep/aireport.htm and air pollution reports for many other Chinese cities (in Chinese) at the State Environmental Protection Administration web site at http://www.nepaeic.gov.cn.

This uniquely Chinese Air Pollution Index used to characterize air pollution in China is not easy to understand. It is not a composite index but reflects the concentration of one of the three reported pollutants -- total suspended particles (TSP), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrous oxides (NOx). In Beijing the API of the pollutant with the highest API for the week is reported for all of Beijing and for each of the seven air quality monitoring stations. In this report, a method for converting the API for each of the three reported pollutants to an internationally-used format is described. Once this conversion has been made, the concentrations of these pollutants in Chinese cities can be compared with concentrations in foreign cities and the scientific literature on air pollution and its health effects.

Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) : Exposures, Relation to PM-10 Reporting in U.S.

Total suspended particulates (TSP) is a measure of the concentration of suspended particulate matter (aerosols) in a cubic meter of air. In China this concentration is sometimes specified in a fraction of a milligram per cubic meter as in 0.150 mg per cubic meter for example, while in most other countries this same concentration would be written as 150 micrograms per cubic meter. Exposures to pollutants can be reported by hourly or eight hour occupational exposure standards, twenty-four hour residential standards or annual averages. According to the PRC Ambient Air Quality Standard [GB 3095-1966] promulgated on October 1, 1996 (summarized in "Severe Beijing Air Pollution Information Emerges", appendix 1) there are three 24-hour PRC TSP standards corresponding to three categories: Class I parks and specially protected areas (120 micrograms per cubic meter); Class II residential areas (300 micrograms per cubic meter); and Class III designated industrial zones (500 micrograms per cubic meter).

The WHO 24 hour TSP standard is 125 micrograms per cubic meter for a 24-hour exposure and an annual average of 50 micrograms per cubic meter. These exposures are for TSP in the presence of sulfur dioxide since the two pollutants have more serious effects in combination than individually since sulfur dioxide coatings on respirable fine particles increase the amount of sulfur dioxide entering the body. In the United States, the concentration of respirable particles ten microns or less in diameter (PM-10 particles) rather than TSP is reported.

In North China, TSP arises from the burning of soft coal (95 percent of the 28 million tons of coal burned in Beijing each year is soft coal), dust from construction sites, and desert sand and loess soil blown eastwards from arid regions of western and northern China. Over the past two decades the plant of the northern forest belts and trees in urban peripheries have sharply reduced the amount of desert sand and loess soil blowing into northern Chinese cities. (“PRC Desertification: Mud Rains Rarer Now” on the Embassy Beiijng ES&T web page) TSPs from burning coal indoors for cooking typically doubles the indoor TSP levels in north China urban homes compared with homes with cooking gas. Many indoor stoves and water heaters do not comply with Chinese safety standards which require venting of pollutants outdoors. Some Chinese and foreign experts attribute most of the respiratory disease among rural Chinese women, who smoke far less than men, to indoor air pollution from cooking stoves. Several Chinese epidemiological studies conclude that most of the 1.4 million deaths due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in China each year are due to outdoor and indoor air pollution.

Emissions Controls, Energy Efficiency Brake TSP Growth

[Comment: Judging from the annual averages on north China urban TSP levels released for 1980 - 1993 released by the then National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), the TSP level has remained almost unchanged despite a sharp drop in coarse particle sand and soil particles and higher coal consumption and rapid economic growth. The answer to this paradox appears to be important energy efficiency gains and reduced emissions from industrial coal users. A senior Chinese environmental official told a visiting American official in Spring 1997 that over the past five years Chinese energy consumption has grown at only half the rate of GDP growth. Another factor is probably that the pollution from township and village enterprises which now produce half of GDP are not captured by Chinese urban air pollution statistics. End comment]

The World Health Organization (WHO) as well as China and many other countries have set maximum healthful levels for TSP exposures for both occupational exposure (an eight-hour exposure) and lower residential exposures (24 hour exposures). The Air Pollution Index (API) given in weekly urban air quality reports that some Chinese cities began reporting after mid 1997 average a number of 24 hours air quality measurements made during the week. The table below shows the TSP concentrations in micrograms per cubic meter which correspond to API indices of 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500.

Table for Converting the PRC Air Pollution Index for TSP to A Concentration in Micrograms Per Cubic Meter
 

Intermediate values are interpolated, that is a TSP API of 75 corresponds to a TSP of 210 micrograms per cubic meter and is calculated thus: (75 - 50)/50 X (300 - 120) + 120 = 210. In essence, the location of the API index between the next lower and higher API value given on the chart is calculated as a fraction of the difference between the next lower and the next higher API value on the chart. This fraction is then multiplied by the difference between the two TSP values on the chart in which the TSP value corresponding to the API value falls. Once the difference between the desired TSP value and the next lower charted TSP value has been determined, than all that is needed is to add this difference to the next lower TSP value to obtain the result.

For the week of May 15 though May 21, the Beijing Environmental Protection Monitoring Center reported that for the urban area of Beijing Municipality the principal pollutant was NOx which had an API of 157. The eight individual monitoring stations reported different principal pollutants including TSP (3 stations), ozone (one station), NOx (four stations) and ozone (one station) which became their API for the week. The Gucheng station in the Shijingshan industrial area of western Beijing reported a TSP API level of 166. As we can be calculated from the table above as follows (166 - 100)/100 X (500-300) + 300 = 432. Thus the TSP level for the Gucheng monitoring station (the station with the highest TSP that week) is 432 micrograms per cubic meter.

PM-10 Level Averages 60 - 80 Percent of TSP Level

China measures TSP while the United States and many other countries have for some years switched to making PM-10 measurements which according to epidemiological studies seem to have a much greater health effect that particles greater than 10 microns in diameter. A 1996 Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration publication “Atmospheric Environmental Standards Handbook” (see bibliography below) refers to research stating that 80 - 90 percent of health effects attributable to TSP are caused by particles having a diameter of 10 microns or less.

According to Chinese air pollution experts, research in both China and other countries has shown that the PM-10 level is between 60 - 80 percent of the TSP level. World Bank air pollution researchers assumed that the PM-10 level is 60 percent of the TSP level for their analysis of the health effects of Chinese air pollution detailed in the 1997 World Bank reports “Can the Environment Wait” as well as in the China 2020 series report “Clear Water, Blue Skies”. The analysis of the health effects of air pollution from “Can the Environment Wait” are summarized on the U.S. Embassy Beijing EST section web page at http://www.usembassy-china.gov (U.S. mirror site) and at http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn (PRC server). This average ratio of PM-10 respirable particles to TSP varies considerably by season and from place to place. Thus any conversion based on this average for any given day might not be reliable, yet averages over months or a year could be converted from TSP to PM-10 with a much higher expectation of accuracy. For example, the ratio of PM-10 to TSP in Beijing is higher during the winter when Beijing burns most of its 28 million ton annual coal consumption than it is during the Spring. Each Spring large diameter non-respirable sand or loess soil particles blown East from Western China sometimes makes North China TSP concentrations climb sharply.

Worst TSP Pollution in North China Cities During Winter

According to the 1997  Environmental Situation Report  issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration on June 3, 1998, during 1997, annual average TSP pollution concentrations in Chinese cities varied from 32 to 741 micrograms per cubic meter. Sixty-seven cities (72 percent of the cities studied) had an annual average TSP air pollution above the PRC Class II residential standard of 200 micrograms per cubic meter. The PRC urban national average TSP concentration during 1997 was 291 micrograms per cubic meter, with northern cities averaging 381 micrograms per cubic meter and southern cities averaging 200 micrograms per cubic meter. Chinese regions with the worst TSP pollution are most of the urban areas of Beijing, Tianjin, Gansu, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Shanxi as well as some cities in Henan, Jilin, Qinghai, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Hebei and Liaoning. Dust blown in from the deserts and loess plains as well as finer particles from coal combustion are part of the TSP pollution picture. During 1997, dust falling on northern cities averaged 21.48 metric tons per square kilometer per month in northern China and 9.29 tons per square kilometer per month in southern China. The report is available on the State Environmental Protection Administatration website in English.

SO2: From API to Concentration in Parts Per Million (PPM)

The high levels of sulfur dioxide and TSP often reported in Chinese cities, especially during the winter, result from burning the soft coal. Converting the API for sulfur dioxide to the concentrations in micrograms per cubic meter and in parts per million (ppm) used in the United States and other countries is straightforward. The WHO standard for sulfur dioxide in the presence of respirable particles such as TSP is a 24 hour average concentration of 125 micrograms per cubic meter. According to the PRC Ambient Air Quality Standard [GB 3095-1996] (summarized reftel B appendix 1) on October 1, 1996 there are three 24-hour PRC sulfur dioxide exposure standards corresponding to three categories: Class I parks and specially protected areas (50 micrograms per cubic meter); Class II residential areas (150 micrograms per cubic meter); and Class III designated industrial zones (250 micrograms per cubic meter). The U.S. federal SO2 standard is 365 micrograms per cubic meter for a 24-hour exposure; the stricter California state standard is 142 micrograms per cubic meter (0.05 ppm).

Table for Converting the PRC Air Pollution Index for Sulfur Dioxide to A Concentration in Micrograms Per Cubic Meter

The API value is interpolated just as in the example for TSP above. Sulfur dioxide is often reported in parts per million (ppm). For sulfur dioxide, one ppm = 2860 micrograms per cubic meter.

Half of Northern Cities Exceed PRC Sulfur Dioxide Class II Residential Standard

According to the 1997 China Environmental Situation Report, during 1997, sulfur dioxide pollution in urban China during 1997 varied from 3 to 248 micrograms per cubic meter. The Chinese 1997 national average sulfur dioxide level was 45 micrograms per cubic meter. The northern urban average was 49 micrograms per cubic meter and the southern urban average was 41 micrograms per cubic meter. Thirty-four cities (36.4 percent of the number of cities studied) reported annual SO2 levels above the PRC Class II residential standard of 60 micrograms per cubic meter. The most severely SO2 polluted cities were the high sulfur coal burning cities of Yibin, Guiyang and Chongqing in China’s southwest and northern cities with especially high energy consumption in Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia.

NOx: Converting from API to a Concentration and Parts Per Million (PPM)

Nitrous oxide (NOx) pollution is one of the three kinds of pollution reported centrally. In the United States and many other countries, the NO2 level (a major component of NOx) rather than the NOx level is customarily reported. Exhaust gases from the 1.2 million motor vehicles in Beijing is the major cause of NOx pollution there -- and the number of vehicles continues to increase at a 15 percent annual rate. In world cities annual NO2 averages are in the 20 - 90 micrograms per cubic meter range although in 1989 Los Angeles had an annual average of 115 micrograms per cubic meter.

Worst NOx Pollution in Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai

According to the 1997 China Environmental Situation Report released by SEPA in June 1998, during 1997 annual NOx concentrations in Chinese cities ranged from 4 to 140 micrograms per cubic meter and the national urban average was 45 micrograms per cubic meter. Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai are the worst of all. These cities had an NOx annual average are the worst of more than 100 micrograms per cubic meter. Other Chinese cities with serious NOx pollution include Jinan, Wuhan, Urumuqi and Zhengzhou.

Table for Converting NOx API to a Concentration in Micrograms per Cubic Meter
 

Nitrous oxide concentrations are commonly expressed in parts per million with 1 ppm of NOx equivalent to 1880 micrograms per cubic meter.

NOx and the 1996 PRC Ambient Air Quality Standard

Studies in Hangzhou, Beijing as well as in foreign countries have shown that the NO2 level (a component of NOx) is about two-thirds of the NOx level. For NO2, China has Class I park standard, the Class II residential standard and Class III industrial zone standards. The strictest, Class I has a 50 micrograms per cubic meter limit. Class II is 100 micrograms and Class III 150 micrograms per cubic meter. For NO2, the WHO standard is 150 micrograms per cubic meter for a 24 hour exposure and 400 micrograms per cubic meter for a one-hour exposure.

Beijing Also Monitors Carbon Monoxide, Ozone Levels

Although the central government does not require reporting of carbon monoxide and ozone levels, Beijing municipality releases this information to the Beijing media when theese two pollutants score highest on the API scale. The carbon monoxide and ozone level information is not reported to the central government since this is not required. Many cities not as well equipped as Beijing only monitor the three main pollutants. Reports on these two pollutants appears only occasionally in the Chinese weekly air pollution reports carried in local media such as the Beijing Evening News [Beijing Wanbao -- the Saturday or Monday paper] if the API for carbon monoxide or ozone is the highest for that week at one of the eight Beijing air quality monitoring stations. The method the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau [EPB] uses to report these carbon monoxide and ozone levels is described below. These methods are now used by Beijing only and no decision has been made by the central government to use this method in other parts of the country.

Beijing EPB: Carbon Monoxide API to CO Concentration

Carbon monoxide readings made by the Beijing EPB are reported in the Beijing press in not in micrograms per cubic meter but in milligrams per cubic meter. This API index is based on the PRC 24 hour CO standards which are 4 milligrams per cubic meter for both Class I and Class II and 6 milligrams per cubic meter for Class III zones. As for the TSP calculation example above, the concentration corresponding to the API can be interpolated from the table below.

Carbon Monoxide API to CO Mg per Cubic Meter

Carbon monoxide concentrations are often expressed in parts per million. Carbon monoxide concentrations in milligrams per cubic meter can be converted to parts per million using the relationship 1 ppm = 1.145 mg/cubic meter.

Beijing EPB: Ozone API to O₃ Mcg Per Cu-M Hourly Standard

The Beijing EPB reports ozone levels to the Beijing media if the ozone API is the highest API at any of the eight Beijing monitoring stations. This API reporting method is not based on the PRC ambient air quality standard but was set by the Beijing EPB after referring to air quality standards using in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The PRC Class I standard is set at the background level of 120 micrograms per cubic meter for a one hour exposure. Class II is 160 micrograms and Class III is 200 micrograms per cubic meter for one hour exposures.

Hourly Ozone API to O₃ Concentration in Micrograms/Cu-M

Unlike the other APIs, this report is based on an hourly reading rather than a 24 hour average of hourly readings. Ozone concentrations are measured in micrograms per cubic meter and in parts per million. Ozone is often expressed in parts per million according to the relation 1 ppm equals 2000 micrograms per cubic meter.

Over the Next Year, A Switch to Daily Reports

In Mid-May Dalian and Shanghai became the first Chinese city to issue daily air quality reports. The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau publishes daily air quality data on its web site at http:// www.envir.online.sh.cn/eng/airep/aireport.htm

A Chinese environmentalist told ESTOFF that the State Council has ordered many more Chinese cities to switch to weekly to daily air quality reports over the next year. (see also Liu Bing article in bibliography) Nanjing is expected to become the first Chinese city to issue daily air quality predictions this June.

How to Make Expensive Daily Reports During Budget Cuts?

The switch over the coming year from weekly to daily air quality reports will require considerable additional investment in back-up monitoring equipment and equipment repair capacity. Half of China’s air pollution monitoring equipment was acquired in 1985 or earlier. A Chinese air pollution expert told ESTOFF that while measuring air quality every other day suffices for weekly reports, much more equipment and manpower need be devoted to daily air quality reports. Making these additional investments for the equipment improvements needed for daily air pollution monitoring could be difficult since it runs against the trend of personnel and budget cuts throughout the new Chinese government of Premier Zhu Rongji. The State Environmental Protection Administration will be cut by about 40 percent this year. Other central government ministries and commissions will be cut by up to two-thirds during the 1998 reorganization. The provincial and lower level environmental protection bureaus will, like other local government organizations, undergo a similar reorganization during 1999 and 2000.

Although the central government has called for regular urban air quality reporting in order to meet the requirements of the 1989 Environment Law, the kind of information released to the mass media is decided by local governments and so differs from city to city. For example, Beijing reports each week the API of the pollutant that score the highest on the API scale for that week for Beijing as a whole and for each of its eight air quality monitoring stations. Shanghai reports to the mass media and posts on the EPB web site all three pollutants but no local monitoring station data. Guangzhou reports two pollutants which score highest on the API scale each week. Central collection of air quality data by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) began in January 1998.

API Conversion Information Makes Possible Comparisons

With the information on converting Chinese API air pollution data in hand, it is now possible to get air pollution data from other countries using (for example) the World Wide Web and compare it with Chinese weekly data. By next year, after most large Chinese cities have converted to daily reporting and a larger run of data will have has accumulated it will be even easier to make useful comparisons.

Yet All Statistics Should Be Used Cautiously

A Chinese environmental studies professor cautioned ESTOFF that reports to the central government pass through the hands of local officials who may alter the data before passing it to the center. While the professor did not say that this is happening now, he cautioned ESTOFF that this could be happening in some cases. The professor told the story of a small plant in Henan Province about to be visited by inspectors. The plant manager, said the professor, jammed his jacket into the smokestack so that emissions would be low during the brief visit of the instpectors. A Chinese environmentalist told ESTOFF that central government air pollution specialists need to collect their own air samples since local environmental protection bureaus don’t want to provide them.

[Comment: Quality control of local data may prove difficult under such circumstances. The problem of inaccurate data reporting in many fields such as the economy, agriculture and public health is a very serious problem in China. According to one popular Chinese saying, “Officials make statistics and statistics make officials” [guan chu shuzi, shuzi chu guan]. See for example, translations from recent Chinese press reports on this problem at on the Embassy web site at http://www.usembassy-china.gov/english/sandt/sandsrc.htm End comment]

Environmental openness and the way in which environmental openness is expressed depends largely on decisions made by local government albeit under pressure from the center. The patchwork quilt of reporting is perhaps even a parable of central government - provincial environmental relations: the center sets down a policy but implementation depends upon the enthusiasm and openness of the local authorities. (see Embassy translation of early 1997 magazine interviews with provincial environmental protection authorities and National People’s Congress Natural Resources and Environment Chairman Qu Geping on the Embassy ES&T section web site under “Sources for ES&T”) Provincial environmental authorities like other provincial agencies, while under the dual leadership of the corresponding minister in the central government and the governor of their province, depend entirely on the provincial government for their budget and personnel. Since the Chinese central government does not have its own environmental officers stationed outside of Beijing, the central governments knowledge of local environmental problems and ability to enforce regulations is often weak. (see “The Fading of Environmental Secrecy” on Embassy ES&T section web page).

Forty Percent of Huai River Polluting Plants Reopened

According to a Chinese official, survey teams sent out by the National People’s Congress and the State Environmental Protection Administration to the Huai River region found that many of the tens of thousands of highly polluting township and village enterprise plants which the State Council ordered closed down in 1996 have since reopened. The Chinese official said that the best estimate is that about 40 percent of the plants have reopened. A notice issued on May 20 by the State Environmental Protection Administration “Notice of Views on Work During 1998 on the Suppression, Closing and Halting of Production at Fifteen Types of Severely Polluting Industries”. The notice, which appeared in the May 28 issue of China Environment News [Zhongguo Huanjing Bao] said that people who cause serious pollution or impede enforcement of the 1996 State Council order “State Council Decision on Some Environmental Protection Issues” will be subject to criminal prosecution.

The notice calls for every local, county and city environmental protection bureau to check every single closed factory at least once every season. Random checks on enforcement will be made by SEPA and the Supervision Department [Jiancha Bu]. Local committees to check on enforcement are required to double-check on enforcement in at least 20 percent of all cases and at least half of the 20 percent must be chosen by random sampling. The notice calls for vigorous efforts to publicize enforcement efforts. Enforcement efforts against many types of plants are directed against smaller plants below a certain production capacity. [Note: the very high rate (20 percent) of double-checking on enforcement may indicate great concern about the quality of local enforcement. The notice closed many smaller but not larger plants of many types. The limits encouraged smaller plants try to band together through stock companies to combine smaller plants into a single company with an annual capacity above the limit. The authorities are enforcing the shutdown order against these multiple plant “big” companies however. End comment]

Gov't Report: Township and Village Enterprises Cause Half of All Chinese Pollution

Data on urban air pollution does not capture pollution generated by the township and village enterprises which according to a December 1997 PRC government report produced in 1995 approximately half of all Chinese air and water pollution. Pollution and other types of data on the township and village enterprises which together account for half of Chinese industrial output is very unreliable. Only after the December 1997 report of a two year survey by the National (now State) Environmental Protection Administration, the State Statistical Bureau, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance did the extent of township and village enterprise pollution, theretofore often excluded from national pollution statistics, become reliably known. The Ministry of Agriculture oversees environmental protection since it is as a Ministry of Agriculture official told ESTOFF in April 1998, the "only ministry which reaches into rural China in which 70 percent of China's population lives". According to the December 1997 report, during 1995 the township and village enterprises produced 21% of the sulfur dioxide, 44% of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of water discharges, half of the suspended particulates, and 43 percent of the heavy metal discharges of all Chinese industry. Suspended particulate emissions were estimated from the TVEs were estimated to have quintupled between 1989 and 1995 while industrial water discharge doubled to 21 percent of the total for Chinese industry. A December 1997 public notice on the results of the two year study can be found in Chinese on the State Environmental Protection Administration web page at http://www.nepaeic.gov.cn/tongji/97XWUDIAO.htm

Party Journal: Are Central Notices Heeded Anymore?

A recent internal distribution-only article from the Chinese Communist Party journal Ban Yuetan complains that local authorities are paying less and less attention to notices and orders from the central government. Much central government policy on environmental protection reaches local government in the form of Notices from the State Council and the State Environmental Protection Administration. The Ban Yuetan article is translated on the U.S. Embassy Beijing ES&T “Sources” web subpage at http://www.usembassy-china.gov/english/sandt/notice.htm

Public Participation Spreads Information, Boosts Enforcement: Changsha’s Environmental “Dial 911”

Increasing public information and participation in environmental protection is helping to solve the serious weaknesses in information and enforcement that hinder environmental protection in China. Chinese newspapers, especially since the August 1996 State Council order calling for aggressive environmental reporting and individual environmental activism, now regularly carry front-page stories on air and water pollution and even complaints that the local authorities did nothing about the problem. A front-page story in Beijing Evening News recently complained about a factory that was still discharging pollution into a river -- even though the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau had been notified two weeks earlier. Another example: in Changsha, a city of 5 million people in Hunan Province, the city Environmental Protection Bureau in May set up a twenty-four hour “Dial 110” pollution hotline (an environmental “ Dial 911”) with an enforcement staff of nineteen people who can respond to serious cases of water, air, noise and other kinds of pollution immediately. According to a report in the May 16 China Environment News [Zhongguo Huanjing Bao], less serious cases are usually handled within forty-eight hours.

Air Pollution and Health: Chinese and English Sources

Chinese perspectives on air pollution in health in the Chinese and English language sources summarized below provide useful background information.

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“China’s Air Pollution Risks” by Keith Florig of Carnegie Mellon University in Environmental Science and Technology News, November 6, 1997 published by the American Chemical Society.

-- Summmary: Florig writes that data compiled from Chinese epidemiological studies and statistics suggests that air pollution causes more than one million deaths every year. Indoor air pollution, especially from coal burning stoves, is a more serious threat to health than outdoor air pollution. The high rates of respiratory disease among Chinese women, who smoke far less (10 percent vs. 75 percent) than men may well be attributable to coal-burning stove exposure. Florig writes that the age-adjusted mortality rates for air pollution related lung and heart disease in China are seven to ten times higher than in the United States. Florig cites several studies by Chinese researchers which ascribe most of 1.4 million deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to indoor and outdoor air pollution. The benefits of a massive (30 million stove) Chinese government effort since 1992 to replace coal stoves with vented biomas stoves have been largely canceled out by the rapidly increasing use of unvented coal stoves for space heating and water heating.

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Air Pollution and Health [Daqi wuran yu jiankang], pp. 403 - 447 and Indoor Pollution and Health [Shinei kongqi wuran yu jiankang] p. 448 - 490, Chapters 11 and 12 of Modern Environmental Hygiene [Xiandai Huanjing Weishengxue] edited by Cai Hongdao et al. Published by People’s Medical Publishing House [Renmin Weisheng Chubanshe] September 1995.

-- Chapter 11 on Air Pollution and Health: The health effects of small respirable particulates and sulfur dioxide combine to make a worse effect than both considered separately since sulfur dioxide coatings on fine particles make it easier for SO2 to enter the body. The sulfur content of Chinese coal varies from 0.05 - 5 percent; 80 percent of the sulfur is converted to sulfur dioxide and exhausted to the atmosphere during combustion.

-- Chapter 12 on Indoor Air Pollution and Health: The health effects of major pollutants on health are surveyed with abundant references to Chinese and foreign air pollution epidemiological studies. Gases and particles from the Combustion of coal in China, the world’s top coal producer, creates much indoor air pollution including SO2, carbon monoxide and respirable particulates. Epidemiological studies in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengde have attributed many respiratory illness in older women and children to coal-burning kitchen stoves. Fluoride poisoning (fluoridosis) resulting from indoor burning of high-fluoride coal affects people in fourteen provinces. Often the fluoride is ingested when food is contaminated by high indoor fluoride levels. A lung cancer epidemiological study conducted by the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine and local health authorities since 1979 in Xuanwei [STC: 1357 1218] County [26.13 N. lat, 104.06 E. long] found a far higher correlation of cancer to indoor air pollution than to smoking. Cancer rates dropped markedly, especially among women (who have the greatest exposure to kitchen smoke) among residents who switched to improved stoves. The effects of various fuels on indoor air pollution, ventilation methods, and techniques for analyzing indoor air pollutants are also discussed.

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Atmospheric Environmental Standards Handbook [Daqi huangjing biaojun gongzuo shouce], State Environmental Protection Administration Science and Technology Standards Department, July 1996.

Summary: Chinese air quality standards and methods for measuring the concentrations of various pollutants based on the 1996 PRC ambient air quality standards (GB 3095-1996). Air quality standards for factories, boilers, and motor vehicles as well as measurement methods such as “A Measuring Method for Exhaust Pollutants from a Light Duty Vehicle” are explained in detail. Procedures for developing air pollution standards including air pollution health effect information based on Chinese and foreign epidemiological studies, the effect of pollution on plant growth, and measurement methods which need to be taken into consideration in developing standards are described. From the discussion on the health effects of various pollutants in this SEPA handbook:

-- TSP Most (60 - 90 percent) of the harmful effects of total suspended particulates (TSP) are caused by the subset of smaller particles -- the PM-10 particles which are 10 microns or less in diameter). For short-term exposures, the lowest daily average concentration that might produce a physiological effect is in the 150 - 350 micrograms per cubic meter range for PM-10 particles. This corresponds to a range of 220 - 420 micrograms per cubic meter for TSP particles. For long term exposures, the lowest daily average concentration that might produce a physiological effect is in the 55 - 110 micrograms per cubic meter range for PM-10 particles and the 110 - 180 micrograms per cubic meter for TSP particles. Taking into consideration the effects of TSP on health and the environment and the current situation in China, the daily and average permissible TSP levels Class I standard were made stricter than the 1982 standard (GB-3095-82). The 1996 Class I TSP standard is 120 micrograms per cubic meter for 24 hours and an annual average of 120 micrograms per cubic meter.

-- SO2 During the late 1980s, the annual average sulfur dioxide concentrations in Chinese cities ranged from 50 - 200 micrograms per cubic meter with a few cities having an annual average as high as 350 micrograms per cubic meter. The highest daily averages ever recorded during these years in Chinese cities ranged from 150 - 1000 micrograms per cubic meter. Under controlled laboratory conditions, the lowest level at which SO2 produces an observable effect is at a concentration of 600 micrograms per cubic meter. However if SO2 is in the presence of suspended particulates, an SO2 concentration of just 200 micrograms per cubic meter produces observable effects (when the TSP level is 150 micrograms per cubic meter). At higher level respiratory distress, a higher respiration rate and higher mortality have been observed.

NOx: According to the handbook, During 1987 - 89, China’s urban NOx level averaged 8 - 140 micrograms per cubic meter. Under controlled experimental conditions, hour-long exposures of sensitive people with respiratory conditions to NOx did not produce observable effects at levels below 190 micrograms per cubic meter. For healthy people, observable effects of NOx appear at levels above 560 micrograms per cubic meter. For long term exposures, only information from animal experiments are available. These results also show no observable ill effects below 190 micrograms per cubic meter. Plants are more susceptible to harmful effects of NOx than are animals. Accordingly, NOx 24 hour exposure standards were set as follows: Class I and Class II 150 micrograms per cubic meter and Class III 150 micrograms per cubic meter. This corresponds to NOx concentrations of Class I and II of 80 micrograms per cubic meter and a Class III concentration of 120 micrograms per cubic meter.

-- Ozone: Ozone begins to have physiological effects on people in the 160 - 240 micrograms per cubic meter range. The Chinese researcher Fang Qisheng found a sudden decline in respiratory function at 180 micrograms per cubic meter for two hour exposures in a limited number of laboratory experiments.

-- Lead: The natural background level of lead in the environment falls in the 0.1 - 0.3 micrograms per cubic meter range in rural areas. Air lead levels in Chinese cities is increases with the number of motor vehicles on the road. In 1981 - 1985 Shenyang reached levels of 4.41 micrograms per cubic meter. “According to foreign research, the human body begins to show some reaction to lead when the blood lead level is in the 10 - 20 micrograms per deciliter range. Clearly harmful effects begin to appear at the 30 micrograms per deciliter level... The WHO suggests that 20 micrograms per deciliter as the threshold for harmful effect of lead.”

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“Health Effects of Outdoor Air Pollution” by Rebecca Bascom M.D. and a Committee of the Environmental and Occupational Health Assembly of the American Thoracic Society in American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine Vol. 153, pp. 3 - 50 and 477 - 498, 1996

A U.S. physician who specializes in environmental health recommended this review article on the state of current medical knowledge on the health effects of air pollution.

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“Can the Environment Wait" a report published by the World Bank in late 1997. A summary of the section on air pollution in China is summarized on the U.S. Embassy web page at http://www.usembassy-china.gov/english/sandt/bjpollu.htm Another 1997 World Bank report, “Clear Water, Blue Skies” in the China 2020 series contains a long discussion of air pollution in China.

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“The Current Environmental Situation in China” by Liu Bing in “Chinese Society 1998: Trends, Analysis and Predictions” [1998 Zhongguo shehui xingshi fenxi yu yuce] published by Shehui Kexue Wenxian Chubanshe January 1998. This is the Chinese Society Blue book which together with the Chinese Economy Blue book is published each year by scholars at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

-- Liu notes in his article on the Chinese environment that during 1996 pollution was especially bad in cities of over 1 million population and among these Guangzhou and Beijing were among the very worst. “As an example, during 1996, Beijing the annual average pollution levels of TSP, SO2 and NOx exceeded the PRC Class II residential standard by 82 percent, 67 percent and 134 percent.” Liu writes that acid rain reduced agricultural production across 10 million hectares of farmland in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and five other provinces costing USD 400 million. Forestland affected 1.28 million hectares and cost USD 80 million in timber and USD 600 million in forest ecosystem value.

-- Many of the highly polluting small factories on the Huai River closed as a result of the 1996 State Council order “State Council Decisions on Some Problems in Environmental Protection” have reopened illegally. Although NEPA reported in April 1997 that 85 percent of the factories have been closed, many of the small township and village enterprises factories re-opened illegally afterwards. Fujian Province inspectors found that 65 percent of the closed TVE plants in Nanping [STC: 0589 1627] City and 40 percent of the closed TVE plants in Sanming [STC: 0005 2494] City have reopened. Liu comments that “this is a classic instance of how “in China’s environmental protection orders are made but not carried out, that there are laws but matters are not handled according to the law. The reason may be that the policy is not realistic, or the various levels of government do not have the strength to enforce the regulations or some combination of the two”.

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Twenty Years of Air Environmental Monitoring in China 1973 - 1993 published by the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) in April 1993. Includes a discussion of air pollution trends 1981 - 1993.

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Urban Air Pollution in the Megacities of the World -- Earthwatch Global Environment Monitoring System published for the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Program in 1992 by Blackwell Publishers, London. Information on Beijing air pollution average levels and air quality standards of many countries.

Examples of Weekly Urban Air Pollution Reports

Here are some examples of the air pollution reports which now appear weekly in the Beijing Evening News [Beijing Wanbao] and other Chinese mass media. A weekly API air quality report from many Chinese big cities is appended at bottom. Shanghai air quality information can be found at the Shanghai EPB web site at http://www.envir.online.sh.cn/eng/airep/aireport.htm

Beijing has eight air quality monitoring stations distributed within the urban core of Beijing municipality. Most are on or within the Third Ring Road. One outlying station in a park-like setting near the tombs of the Ming Dynasty emperors provides a comparison with urban air quality conditions.

Locations Of The Eight Beijing City Air Quality Monitoring Stations

Locations of Bejing center city air quality monitoring stations.

Beijing Center City Map from the Jingtong Map CD-ROM used with the permission
of the Tongquan Co. of Beijing.
 

Feb.20,1998 -- Feb.26,1998

Feb.27,1998 -- Mar.5,1998

API Air Pollution Index for Many Chinese Cities for the Week of June 5,1998 -- June 11,1998