Environmental Health Issue

BEIJING Youre moving to China with your family, and youre excited but also concerned:
What might the countrys notorious smog do to your and your childrens lungs?
Heres how you can feel the fear and move to China anyway, while minimizing your health risks:
Relocate to Guangzhou, the capital of the southern province of Guangdong, near Hong Kong.
Second best: move to Shanghai.
Dont move to Beijing, Chengdu or Shenyang, if you can help it.
Those are some conclusions to be drawn from a new study of air quality in five major cities by a
team of researchers at Peking University led by Chen Songxi, a statistician at the universitys Guanghua
School of Management.
In an interview, Mr. Chen said the study was prompted by a sense of disgust at air pollution. I
felt that as scientists we should do something about the situation facing a billion Chinese people, he said.
There was both good and bad news in the report, titled Air Quality Assessment Report (2): A
Statistical Analysis of Air Pollution in Five Chinese Cities and published online.
The team scrutinized three years of air quality data for the measure known as PM 2.5, the fine
particulate matter that is especially hazardous to health.
One source of the data was the Chinese Ministry of
Environmental Protection. The other was the United
States Embassy in Beijing and consulates in Guangzhou,
Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenyang.
By using two independent data sets, the
researchers answered a second question: Is the Chinese
governments air quality data trustworthy? The answer:
Yes, at least in these five cities. That was one piece of
good news.
China began releasing PM 2.5 figures for hundreds of locations in 2013, five years after the
United States Embassy began publishing readings from monitors on its grounds that drew wide attention
among Chinese. Suspicions linger to this day about the reliability of the Chinese government data.
Another piece of good news: PM 2.5 levels declined over the last three years in all five cities. In
Beijing, they fell from 99 micrograms per cubic meter to 81, and in Shanghai from 61 to 50. In
Guangzhou, they fell from 54 to 39.
---to be continued
Article originally taken from The New York Times, 31st of March, 2016.

The environmental health issue that I chose is about air pollution. As we know, human cant live
without air for breathing. But now, its hard to breathe with real-fresh air.
Air pollution is a mixture of natural and man-made substances in the air we breathe. It is
typically separated into two categories: outdoor air pollution and indoor air pollution. Outdoor air
pollution took place outside of the built environment. For examples:

Particles produced by the burning of fossil fuels (i.e. the coal and petroleum used in traffic and
energy production)
Noxious gases (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, chemical vapors, etc.)
Ground-level ozone (a reactive form of oxygen and a primary component of urban smog)
Tobacco smoke

Indoor air pollutions are particulates, carbon oxides, and other pollutants carried by indoor air or dust.
Examples:

Gases (carbon monoxide, radon, etc.)

Household products and chemicals
Building materials (lead, etc.)
Outdoor indoor allergens (cockroach and mouse dropping, etc.)
Tobacco smoke
Pollen

In some instances, outdoor air pollution can make its way indoors by way of open windows, doors,
ventilation, etc.
Air pollution is very dangerous for me. Why? Because it is around us, invisible but has a big impact
while we know nothing. Over the past years, researchers found variety of health effects caused by air
pollution exposure. There are respiratory disease (e.g. asthma and lungs function change), cardiovascular
diseases, adverse pregnancy outcomes (such as preterm birth), and even death.
Furthermore, poisonous air pollutants can form acid rain. It can also form dangerous ground level
ozone. These destroy trees, crops, farms, animals and continue to make water bodies harmful to humans
and animals that live and depend on water.
This can be related with water pollution. People who rely their life with this water can be
contaminated, too. Therefore, WHO concluded that air pollution is carcinogenic for humans in 2013.
Also, air pollution formed fog or haze that disturbing humans activities in experience the outdoors.