It turns out this wasn?t your ordinary smog. The Chinese Academy of Sciences said on Saturday the super thick air that chocked Beijing in January was packed with large amounts of toxic organic chemicals. They?re known as photochemicals, and if researchers are right, Beijing?s air has just become far more deadly than expected.
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[Li Xinshu, Professor, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University]:
?Nitrogen compounds that appear in smog are usually nitrogen dioxide. This and sulfur dioxide usually come from car emissions. If the weather is bad and humidity is high, these will turn into larger particles, and is can cause cancer if inhaled.?
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These photochemicals killed more than 800 people in Los Angeles a hundred years ago. And, according to data released by the Chinese government, a lot of people in China were breathing in this same toxic compound, and way more of it.
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But the effects of the toxic air won?t be limited to just China. Smog travels far. The Japanese Environmental Ministry is reporting the Beijing smog has also blanketed Tokyo.?
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Researchers as far away as Oregon in the United States have discovered that Chinese pollution can even reach the US on the Pacific jet stream. It?s a large, high-altitude current of air connecting that circles the world from west to east.?
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But what about Beijing residents? What can they do to protect themselves? It turns out, very little.
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[Mr Li, Beijing Resident]:
?We?re helpless, when we have no rights, or when our rights are taken away, there is nothing we can do. We don?t have the right to choose our officials, so they don?t work for us. The natural environment we live in reflects our political environment?
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It can take many years for lung cancer to develop after exposure to photochemical smog, so we?re likely to be seeing the effects of Beijing?s blackest day for years to come.
Source: http://ntdtv.org/en/news/china/2013-02-18/cancer-causing-photochemicals-found-in-beijing-smog.html
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