Chinese Haze

近年来，我国中部和东部地区受到长期严重的大规模雾霾天气的影响。整个华北、黄淮地区和长江流域都有不同程度污染。本篇文章介绍了什么是雾霾以及导致形成雾霾的主要因素。

In recent years, the central and eastern regions in China were frequently affected by serious long-term and large-scale haze weather. The whole north of China, Huang-Huai area and Yangtze River regions were polluted in different degrees. According to statistics, the land area which was influenced by the heavy fog weather reached 345 square kilometers in China’s central and eastern regions since 2013. More than half the national people have been badly affected in the aspect of daily life, enterprise production and transportation (Luo Liangqing and Xie Lizhi 319). Especially in winter, Chinese people suffered from haze badly. Many people were infected with diseases and nobody dared to walk out of doors without respirators. 

What is haze? Haze weather is a combination of fog and haze. The main ingredients of haze include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and inhaled Particulate matter. Among the three matters, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are gaseous pollutants while  inhaled particulate matter is solid contaminants. 

From the meteorology, the fog and haze are two different meteorological concepts and meteorological phenomena (Li Liangzhi and Li Xin 1979). Fog is condensed by ice crystal or small water droplets suspending in the air. And its composing state is aerosols system which often occurred in autumn and winter. When the horizontal visibility is less than 1,000 meters, the weather phenomena caused by large-scale water vapor condensation is called fog. If the horizontal visibility is between 1,000 meters and 10,000 meters, we call it mist. As for haze, its main components are sulfuric acid, nitric acid, dust, organic carbon oxides and other particles. When the horizontal visibility is less than 10,000 meters which caused by this aerosol system, we call this weather phenomena haze or dust-haze (Li Peng 323).

Fog is indirectly related with air pollution. On one side, it indeed doesn’t do harm to our body and health. But for those patients with severe asthma or emphysema, fog will make them uncomfortable. On the other side, some contamination particles are easily heaping up, slowing down air motion thus getting air quality worse. Haze has a direct relationship with air pollution because those suspended particles in the air can damage human body. Despite that we can’t see them with naked eyes, they can enter our body through respiratory system and even adhere to our lungs. The consequence is that our immune systems are undermined and eventually we are infected with diseases. 

The different sizes of fog particles’ diameter lead to different extents of injury. PM10, also called inhalable particles which are able to enter the upper respiratory tract but less harmful to human body compared with other particle matters. PM2.5, repairable particles, can directly enter into bronchus after being absorbed by human body. It may trigger asthma, bronchitis and cardiovascular diseases. Besides, there are plenty of poisonous and harmful substances so it’s more harmful than PM10. PM1 is with cancerogenic substance and can enter into human blood (Li Peng 323). 

What kind of activities can result in haze especially for China in recent years? Well, it can be explained from perspectives of human factor and natural factor. Nevertheless, what human beings did mostly accounted for the cause of haze. “Fog-haze has a close relationship with the accumulation of mass contaminants, adverse weather conditions and regional transport of contaminants ”(Wei Li, Yan Shi, Chunli Song 3678-3682 ).

The large amount of high energy-consuming enterprises and high pollutive industries sharply increases pollutants. The thermal power in China accounts for more than 90% of whole power generation and 85% of thermal power is almost coal-fired power. Fossil fuel combustion and energy use produce sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide which lead to accumulation of mass contaminants. Cement, steel, manufacturing and other industries are widely distributed in north China area like Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region where pollution level is 3.7 times of the national average level. Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia autonomous region are also concentrated with coal chemical industries and thermal power enterprises. It is same with Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta. Both are areas concentrated with highly polluting production industries (Wu Ping, Yu Wenzhou 453 ). 

Some adverse weather conditions has also gradually become one of reasons of haze weather. Some cities are dry and rainless but windy in winter and early spring especially in north China. Such weather can easily make flowing dust pollution. The majority of China’s cities are in the rapid development of infrastructure construction. Building, demolition, road construction and other work process generate more and more raise dust. Combine the two factors it’s not strange that raising dust pollution is more and more serious. Good weather conditions are conducive to the spread of waste gas and polluted particulate matters. And vise versa thus leading to as well as aggravating the occurrence of haze disaster. Three changes of meteorological conditions are the factors which lead to serious consequences. The decrease of the annual average rainy days, the decrease of the annual average wind speed and the increase of calm wind days (Wang Tengfei 15). Hence climate effect can also be an important factor to hazy weather.  

Motor vehicle exhaust emission is another significant cause for hazy weather. With the high-speed development of economy, Chinese auto production average growth rate is about 13% in recent 10 years. It has become worse and worse of cities’ motor vehicle pollution. Due to the large amount of automobile exhaust, atmospheric compound pollution has presented significant deterioration and spreading tendency in urban agglomeration areas. That’s why a wide range of haze appeared especially in some metropolis(Wu ping Yu Wenzhou 453).

China has taken measures to control hazy weather for a long time. In 2014 during APEC week, Beijing’s air quality reached a new level. The long-lost blue sky which was called “APEC blue” appeared in people’s eyes once again. However, Chinese government took some extraordinary measures to achieve the results. 

In 2014 February, president Xi pointed out that the primary task of controlling the haze pollution and improving air quality is to control PM2.5. According to this direction, Chinese government took a series of most severe measures in history particularly in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. What the government did included implementation of the emergency measures to reduce emissions, motor vehicle restrictions and controls, the suspension of production by factories in neighboring cities especially coal enterprises , strengthening urban road cleaning. By means of these actions, Beijing’s air quality experienced a reversal. The major air pollutant emissions significantly decreased during APEC session. The ratio of emission reduction of sulfur dioxide, oxynitride, PM10 and PM2.5 were separately 54%, 41%, 68% and 63%. Measures like emission reduction, driving restriction and production halts played a huge role. Because according to statistics, motor vehicle emissions accounted for 31.1%, coal accounted for 22.4%, industrial manufacture accounted for 18.1%, raise dust accounted for 14.3% among the whole PM2.5 pollutants while the rest were mainly from restaurant, livestock breeding, etc. 

In fact, it was not the first time China began to take measures to deal with environmental problems. Still, it didn’t work well and the results seemed to be unsatisfied. People paid little attention to the laws or administrative punishment even our government turned a blind eye to those polluting enterprises. We regarded it a tough task and always consoled ourselves that it was the cost of development which we must accept. But APEC blue awaken us that we can and we must governance haze weather as long as our government gets tough. Just like the measures they took during APEC week. Those responsible for not obeying rules were punished or interviewed and the number in Hebei province was 29. Only with strong and serious attitude can  people realize the importance of governance of haze weather and then take actions.

European and America spent about 50 years controlling air pollution and until now it’s also their priority. APEC blue is a special experiment which definitely can’t last forever. We must fully realize the difficulty, particularity and fully realize the particularity and persistence of atmospheric environment control. But the transient success changed our mind that we are capable of making some achievements. In this process, our government must play its key role turning the temporary reduction into no emissions, changing the development mode and phasing out backward production capacities. At the same time, our enterprises must enhance their social responsibility and strictly obey the laws related to energy conservation and emission reduction. As citizens, we can implement green commuting which means choosing the minimal impact on the environment way to travel. 

Chinese haze is catching more and more attention since it is more and more serious. Through the joint efforts from all aspects, we can keep APEC blue in future not only in Beijing but also the whole nation. 

                        Works Cite
Luo Liangqing and Xie Lizhi. “The Economic Analysis on the Haze Governance”.
Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research. 2014, 6(6):319-325.
Li Liangzhi and Li Xin. “The Research on Corporate Social Responsibility in the
    Haze Governance ”. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research. 
2014, 6(5):1979-1985.
Li Peng. “ Cause of the Haze and Prevention Countermeasures”. China Academic 
Journal Electronic Publishing House. 2015: 323.
Li Wei ,Shi Yan , Song Chunli. “Analysis on the Causes and Hazards of Fog-haze and 
Prevention Strategies in China.” Advanced Materials Research, 2014, Vol. 
    955-959, 3678-3682. 
Wang Tengfei. “Haze Change Trend and Countermeasures under the Background of 
Climate Change ”.  Environmental Impact Assessment. 01(2014).
Wu Ping, Yu Wenzhou. “Fog Causes, Harm, Public Reaction and Countermeasures”.
Chinese public health management. 2014, Vol. 30, 453-453.



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