I had never believed air pollution can kill, until I spent a year living in Beijing. The year was 2013. Notably, it was a time the city was known for its "airpocalypse", a moniker used by foreign media to describe severe air pollution in China.
In January, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometres, or PM2.5 dust, was at its peak and at an unhealthy level of over 600 microgrammes per cubic metre. At some monitoring stations in Beijing, the PM2.5 dust was found to be as high as 900 microgrammes.
The so-called safe level is no more than 50 microgrammes while a World Health Organisation guideline recommends that the annual average should not be more than 10 microgrammes.
I remembered one early morning in Beijing when the sky was so dark it looked like twilight. Haze covered the city's sky, like a thick foggy mist except the colour was ghoulishly yellow. I walked along the road for five minutes and had to sit down to rest; I felt so dizzy and out of breath. Then, I rushed to a grocery store to buy a dust filter mask.
In Beijing, wearing such a mask during the winter has become part of daily life, like wearing a scarf and sweater, except masks made us look eerie. The air quality that year was unimaginably awful. I was constantly parched. I needed to clean my nose regularly to remove fine dust from my nostril hairs. I bought an air purifier for my apartment and checked an air quality monitoring website before leaving the building.
The media reported that in January 2013 Beijing Children's Hospital handled more than 7,000 patients a day, a five-year record including a high number for children suffering respiratory ailments. The "airpocalypse" was the cataclysmic effect caused by emissions from coal-fired power plants, steel plants and small factories; a dust storm which swept in from the Mongolian desert in winter, local construction, and vehicle exhaust fumes.
The level of air pollution was so bad that people started criticising the government for not providing them with enough air quality information. Beijingers turned to one reliable source -- an online air quality monitor of the US embassy there. Needless to say, the Chinese authorities were losing face.
With a dust protection mask, I survive Beijing's airpocalypse and returned to enjoy the blue skies of Bangkok. But I still keep following updates on air pollution in China.
Last December, the air quality level in Beijing was reported as the best for the past five years, thanks to attempts by the government to bring pollution under control. Since 2013, Chinese authorities have rolled out measures such as a ban on construction during winter, the temporary closure of polluting factories and prohibition of smoke-belching vehicles, especially trucks, entering the inner-city areas.
Last March, the last coal-fired power plant in Beijing stopped operating. Since the 2013 airpocalypse, the capital has been reducing the use of coal which produces the fine particles in the air that are crucial to the formation of smog.
Compared to Beijing's airpocalypse, Bangkok's air pollution, where PM2.5 dust reached a peak level of 100 microgrammes per cubic metre, is less serious. But what is more apocalyptic than the load of particulate matter in the air is our government's nonchalant attitude and foot-dragging on the problem. For three weeks, authorities keep urging us to be patient, wear a mask and skip outdoor activities.
It is unfair to say they remained idle. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has been quick to wash roads or spray water at construction sites. With respect and gratitude to BMA, I cannot help wondering whether it will end the problem. Most of the dust at construction sites is the larger PM10, not the PM2.5 that is emitted mostly from vehicles.
Our leaders haven't come up with any substantial long-term measures to deal with air pollution. The only good news so far comes from the BMA which says air quality will be better in 11 years' time when many electric rail systems, now under construction, will be up and running. No authorities mentioned the need to regulate and reduce personal car use or depart from our dependence on coal-fired energy.
In contrast, Chinese President Xi Jinping has introduced long-term measures to ensure China's sky is blue by embracing renewable energy and shutting down coal-fired power plants. At this point, you might wonder what the vision of our supreme leader is. To fight the recent Bangkok smog, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha urged farmers to stop burning farm waste in the open air. That's it.
