In this month’s Lancelot, a group of 6 authors have published the 10 page article Environmental health in China: progress towards clean air and safe water, and I would highly recommend readers take the time to download the paper (right click here) and read it.

Here is their summary:

Environmental risk factors, especially air and water pollution, are a major source of morbidity and mortality in China. Biomass fuel and coal are burned for cooking and heating in almost all rural and many urban households, resulting in severe indoor air pollution that contributes greatly to the burden of disease. Many communities lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and thus the risk of waterborne disease in many regions is high. At the same time, China is rapidly industrialising with associated increases in energy use and industrial waste. Although economic growth from industrialisation has improved health and quality of life indicators, it has also increased the release of chemical toxins into the environment and the rate of environmental disasters, with severe effects on health. Air quality in China’s cities is among the worst in the world, and industrial water pollution has become a widespread health hazard. Moreover, emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases from energy use are rapidly increasing. Global climate change will inevitably intensify China’s environmental health troubles, with potentially catastrophic outcomes from major shifts in temperature and precipitation. Facing the overlap of traditional, modern, and emerging environmental dilemmas, China has committed substantial resources to environmental improvement. The country has the opportunity to address its national environmental health challenges and to assume a central role in the international effort to improve the global environment.

For me, these are perhaps two of the two most important environmental issues that China faces, and will be an area that only continues to grow worse as teh full health impacts from water and air degradation are further exacerbated

Fantastic.

further, there are some updates to the program that suggest they have been taking the time to learn and improve the program, another good sign which I believe indicates this programs will be a long term one:

For private cars, the new ban is only effective from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., compared to 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. under the current rule. The restrictions remain in effect round the clock for government and corporate vehicles.

Residents will be allowed to drive on the Fifth Ring Road throughout the week.

Also, owners will have the same “off-day” for 13 weeks in a row as opposed to just four weeks. The new rotation was designed to reduce confusion.

Also encouraging is to see that the program has been monitored, and have created some measurable results.:

Figures released by the Beijing Transportation Research Center (BTRC) last week showed that traffic jams were reduced by five hours and 15 minutes a day during the six months since the post-Olympics restrictions have been in effect. Vehicular emissions were reduced by 375 tonnes, or 10 percent, every day.

all good news.

In the second half of last year, a period that included the Olympics in August, Beijing recorded its lowest air pollution readings since 2000, according to data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The average monthly air pollution index was 74, about 25 percent lower than the previous seven years.

Surely, Beijing would have preferred to have the changes not come at the cost of millions of jobs, however where I hope this story does not end is that Beijing takes this time to correct the industrial complex and its need to pollute.

Investing in technologies that will reduce air pollution at power production and manufacturing site, driving standards targeted at imprving fuel efficiency, and investing in sustainable urban planning will all help to ensure that as the global economy recovers we do not see the same problems rear the heads back up.

Aside from this, it sure would be interesting to see if any similiar improvement in water qualities may have resulted from the reduced manufacturing activity.

According to Science Daily’s coverage:

During the two months when restrictions were in place, the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) — a noxious gas resulting from fossil fuel combustion (primarily in cars, trucks, and power plants) — plunged nearly 50 percent. Likewise, levels of carbon monoxide (CO) fell about 20 percent.

For me, there are a few lessons here:
1) If we want to improve the conditions – we can
2) There are costs to improving the questions – and we will all be willing to pay the costs at some point
3) All it takes is a little leadership, and a little public support, to make the changes

Until then, these findings matter little in reality.  Beijing put lipstick on the pig for a couple of months as a drastic measure, and while there have certainly been improvements made and investments approved, the fact is that things are back to normal and the air quality for Beijing’s residents is the same now as it was 1 year ago.

In yet another example of just how anything is possible in China (especially when you close factories by the dozens), the good folks in Biejing have announced that they have meet their 2008 blue sky air targets a month early.

As part of the clean air program, the authorities shifted most of the high-polluting plants, including that of steel giant Shougang Group, out of the city, and replaced them with green facilities. Stricter fuel emission rules, too, were implemented, with gas stations revamped to curb petroleum vaporization.

Beijing will launch tougher air cleaning programs from January 1 by shifting more coal-burning industries out of the city and banning heavy polluting cars.

For me, I am curious to see what next year will look like as Beijing took some extreme measures in clearing out the air in the months prior to the Olympics… and it involved shutting down plants and removing vehicles from surrounding provinces.

To keep that up would inevitably prove difficult, something we are already seeing difficulties even with in the capital

According to the article:

The China Environmental Monitoring Center:classifies air quality in China’s urban areas into five levels: level I or excellent (pollution reading: not exceeding 50), level II or fairly good (pollution reading: 51 to 100), level III or slightly polluted (pollution reading: 101 to 200), level IV or poor (pollution reading: 201 to 300), and level V or hazardous (pollution reading: over 301).

A sampling of the City Major Pollutant Air Quality Level of the 47 cities listed:

Beijing                                 Level  I
Tianjin                                 Level  I
Shijiazhuang                        Level  I
Shenyang                             Level  I
Dalian                                  Level  I

A sampling of the City Major Particulate Matter Levels of the 47 cities listed:

Shanghai                             Level II
Nanjing                               Level II
Suzhou                                Level II
Nantong                              Level II

For Level III, a few of the western cities – Lanzhou and xining were listed

Where I think this is a step forward is that there is a semblemce of transperancy, but there is still a long way to go before the list they have put together is credible.  Now only are the actual readings missing, but with cities like Beijing, Shenyang, & Shijiazhuang al being known for heavy particulant pollution… and Shanghai, Suzhou, and Nantong not know for this, the readings jsut don’t make sense to me.