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London smog holds a lesson to Beijing
Source: Xinhua |
February 27, 2013, Wednesday
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BEIJING recently suffered serious air pollution. The problems that Beijing and other Chinese cities suffer has parallels with pollution problems faced in previous decades, and still faced, in cities in developed countries.
London suffered serious smog in the past and has changed policies as a result. It still faces public health challenges.
Murad Qureshi, chair of the London Assembly health and environment committee that oversees the work of the London mayor, talked about the city's history of smog and how the suffocating air demanded a new approach.
Qureshi said, "In (December) 1952 we had a particularly bad few weeks of sulphur oxide pollution, which literally meant Londoners were dropping dead from intense smog."
Dr Gary Fuller, senior lecturer at the Environmental Research Group in King's College, London, told Xinhua, "Since 1952 London's air pollution has changed. We have moved away from burning coal to heat our homes - using natural gas - but London still has many pollution problems. But today our problems come mainly from road transport."
The burning of solid fuel in London in 1952 and in Beijing and its surroundings today is similar. Lessons can be learned by Beijing from London.
Dr Fuller said that like all big European cities, London has problems with nitrogen dioxide pollution and with PM10, PM2.5 from traffic. These are particles in the air that when inhaled may cause harm. PM2.5 are smaller and can cause more damage.
Dr Fuller said, "There are two priorities - you can seek to manage air pollution all of the time, or you can seek to be responsive and try to manage air pollution at times when it is higher. This leads to two different approaches. In Beijing if you look at the average pollution concentrations, the PM2.5 in Beijing, it contains a lot of old stale coal smoke; this is coming from industry quite a long way away. So, this requires a solution that comes from outside the city."
Difficult problems
òIf we look at the type of conditions that Beijing experienced recently, this is where settled air sits over the city so that the problems it experienced came from pollution sources within the city,ó he added.
òSolving a big mega-city?s air pollution problems is not simple. It involves action at a local level to look at abating traffic, and it requires action in the region around us, which is the source, if you like, of long range air pollution,ó said Dr Fuller.
Diesel engines are a real problem, and a source of increased pollution in recent years.
Dr Fuller explained, "We have seen a huge change in the cars in London. If you go back 10 or 12 years, fewer than 20 percent of new cars would have been diesels and now we are approaching 50 percent. Diesel engines produce a lot more nitrogen oxide and PM10 and PM2.5 particles," he said.
Dr Fuller said there was debate about policy.
"Many people say electric vehicles are the future but implementing electric vehicles is very difficult; you need charging, infrastructure, technology changes in terms of batteries and so forth to take them from their prototype and early production stages into the mainstream."
London suffered serious smog in the past and has changed policies as a result. It still faces public health challenges.
Murad Qureshi, chair of the London Assembly health and environment committee that oversees the work of the London mayor, talked about the city's history of smog and how the suffocating air demanded a new approach.
Qureshi said, "In (December) 1952 we had a particularly bad few weeks of sulphur oxide pollution, which literally meant Londoners were dropping dead from intense smog."
Dr Gary Fuller, senior lecturer at the Environmental Research Group in King's College, London, told Xinhua, "Since 1952 London's air pollution has changed. We have moved away from burning coal to heat our homes - using natural gas - but London still has many pollution problems. But today our problems come mainly from road transport."
The burning of solid fuel in London in 1952 and in Beijing and its surroundings today is similar. Lessons can be learned by Beijing from London.
Dr Fuller said that like all big European cities, London has problems with nitrogen dioxide pollution and with PM10, PM2.5 from traffic. These are particles in the air that when inhaled may cause harm. PM2.5 are smaller and can cause more damage.
Dr Fuller said, "There are two priorities - you can seek to manage air pollution all of the time, or you can seek to be responsive and try to manage air pollution at times when it is higher. This leads to two different approaches. In Beijing if you look at the average pollution concentrations, the PM2.5 in Beijing, it contains a lot of old stale coal smoke; this is coming from industry quite a long way away. So, this requires a solution that comes from outside the city."
Difficult problems
òIf we look at the type of conditions that Beijing experienced recently, this is where settled air sits over the city so that the problems it experienced came from pollution sources within the city,ó he added.
òSolving a big mega-city?s air pollution problems is not simple. It involves action at a local level to look at abating traffic, and it requires action in the region around us, which is the source, if you like, of long range air pollution,ó said Dr Fuller.
Diesel engines are a real problem, and a source of increased pollution in recent years.
Dr Fuller explained, "We have seen a huge change in the cars in London. If you go back 10 or 12 years, fewer than 20 percent of new cars would have been diesels and now we are approaching 50 percent. Diesel engines produce a lot more nitrogen oxide and PM10 and PM2.5 particles," he said.
Dr Fuller said there was debate about policy.
"Many people say electric vehicles are the future but implementing electric vehicles is very difficult; you need charging, infrastructure, technology changes in terms of batteries and so forth to take them from their prototype and early production stages into the mainstream."
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