Chengdu first to open clinic for smog patients
Print Edition
A HOSPITAL in southwest China’s Sichuan Province has opened a clinic for patients who are suffering from symptoms related to smog, highlighting how big a concern pollution has become for Chinese.
The clinic at the No. 7 People’s Hospital in Chengdu City has already treated more than 100 patients since starting the clinic last week.
Dr Wang Qixun said it was set up because the number of smog-related patients had surged since last year.
Since it opened on December 9, the clinic has treated a dozen patients on average every day, with the most common symptoms being coughs and sore or itching throats, as well as asthma and heart disease “triggered or worsened by smog,” Wang said.
A large red banner that hung across the doors of the clinic’s outpatient department read: “We should not fear smog. It’s preventable and curable,” according to a picture posted on the China National Radio’s website.
The rising middle class in China has become increasingly fed up with air pollution that has accompanied the country’s spectacular economic growth. The term PM2.5, which refers to tiny particles in the air that can penetrate deep into the lungs, has become a common part of the vocabulary.
Pan Xiaochuan, a professor at Peking University’s School of Public Health, said he wasn’t aware of any other smog clinics in China.
“You can’t really say a symptom such as a cough or sore throat is caused by PM2.5. Chances are the cold weather is the real cause,” he said.
“There might be more hospitals following suit, because I think it’s a way to increase hospitals’ revenues,” Pan said.
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, has relatively little industry and levels of air pollution there are considered low compared with Beijing and other northern Chinese cities, but high compared with European standards.
Yesterday, the US Consulate in Chengdu, which measures air quality, gave it an index reading of 160 — or unhealthy — based on a PM2.5 reading of 73 micrograms per cubic meter. A safe level under WHO guidelines is 25 micrograms per cubic meter. The Chinese reading, which has a different classification system, came out as “lightly polluted.”
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