http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair just how bad is it? Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:03:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 4 days into the traffic restrictions, today is even worse than yesterday, with an API of 113 for 24 July- this is equivalent to a PM10 value of about 175 micrograms/m3. Let's go back to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines of 2005  (AQG) to understand this number. For ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=85 As reported below, the traffic measures started on 20 July, so let's have a look at the air quality since then. As you can see on the below graph, the API values since 20 July have gone up each day since 20 July (blue line is for Beijing). This is ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=83 The Wall Street Journal has a nice graph of something i have been pointing out since November 2007, and when they put this in front of Chinese officials, the spokesman of Beijing-EPB claimed it shows 'the ability of government measures to head off short-term spikes in pollution'... Yesterday the reduced traffic ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=82 The weather has been quite wet recently in Beijing, and it's hard to tell if that fog is just humidity or smog... The average API over the first 15 days of July is only 73, well below the average value of 100, so it seems our daily portion of rain, ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=81 Beijing has announced special traffic measures to curb emissions during the Olympics, of which the most important ones are: From July 20 to September 20, Beijing-registered automobiles will hit the roads on an alternate-day basis. That is to say, vehicles with license plates ending in odd numbers will be banned from ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=80 Today 27 May 2008 Beijing's API is 463, the worst of this year so far. People often ask me if i think the situation is getting any better, but unfortunately i don't think it is. Let's look at the numbers for this year, keeping in mind that the yearly average API ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=77 Over the last 3 months it has been tempting to think that the air quality in Beijing was actually improving since the start of the year, but the last weeks have been as bad as we are used to. The graph below shows the daily API values in blue, with a black trend ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=75 Beijing is seeing an unusually long series of 'blue sky days', today is the 8th one in a row (SEPA API 21-28 Jan), but you may have noticed the air smells of sulphur more than usual. Indeed for the last 4 days (25-28 Jan) SEPA is reporting SO2 as the ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=74 The New York Times reports that the USA olympic team will bring up to 1000 air pollution face masks to Beijing, and it seems this is not the first time: United States triathletes wore masks in China last September, but removed them before competing. They stepped off the bus looking like ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=73 Today's API is 66 only, much lower than the last 3 days, probably because of the snow that cleared out the air last night. Interesting to note however that the main polluting substance was not PM10 (fine dust) as it is 99% of the time, but SO2 (sulphur dioxide) first ... http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?p=72