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As China wages a long-term war against air pollution, the government is being urged to seriously study how air pollution, and smog in particular, impacts human health over the long term and deliver targeted interventions as soon as possible.

PM 2.5 density stands at 106 at the Qianmen area in Beijing on Thursday afternoon. The city has experienced several smoggy days in succession.[Photo/China Daily]

Real-time air monitoring by the Ministry of Environmental Protection showed that more than 60 percent of the 338 Chinese cities under surveillance experienced air pollution on Wednesday.

Nearly 25 percent of the cities, including Beijing, saw heavy smog, with AQI readings between 201 and 300.

The World Health Organization said air pollution continues to pose a threat to human health worldwide. About 2 million premature deaths annually can be attributed to its effects.

Wang Hufeng, head of the healthcare reform center of Renmin University of China, said China lacks surveillance, research and evidence-based evaluations of the health impact of the smog hitting increasing parts of China.

"It will be a long and tough war against air pollution, especially particulate matter, in the country and potential related health effects have to be monitored and studied scientifically and constantly," Wang said.

International studies on environmental health have found links between exposure to air pollution and heart, respiratory and kidney problems.

Xu Dongqun, deputy director of the institute of environmental health and related product safety at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the specific health impacts are also highly related to the varieties of the major pollutants.

Monitoring and research for smog-related health effects in the country are necessary to devise effective countermeasures to protect public health on smoggy days, she said. And that requires cooperation among government agencies of health, environmental protection and meteorology, she added.

Globally, the WHO in 2015 for the first time urged members to develop air quality monitoring systems and health registries to improve surveillance for all illnesses related to air pollution.

In response, China's top health authority pledged in late 2016 to set up 126 monitoring sites nationwide to study the effects of air pollution on health.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission has been researching correlations between health and smog, Ma Xiaowei, deputy head of the commission, told a news conference in December.

"This work is still in its primary stage, but we are losing no time," Ma said.

China has started smog risk assessments and a program on smog warning technology to identify typical pollutants that harm people's health and establish an evaluation system, he added.

Common myths explained

Golden train

A high-speed train traveling from Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, to Beijing was tainted yellow and covered with dust due to passing through smoggy regions, according to a picture released on Wednesday.

Explanation

Sun Zhang, a professor at Tongji University's Institute of Rail Transit, said: "The fine particulate matter in smog can form electric conductors or semi-electric conductors if the concentration is quite dense. In severe air pollution, it can cause a pollution flashover, where the conductors give off heat that burns the metal particles in the air and sticks to the surface of a train, making it look dirty.

"In addition, the air pres-sure generated at such high speed draws fine particles and dust to a train's surface."

Smog generator

If a humidifier used drinking water instead of purified water, the mist would make the PM2.5 concentration levels soar. In addition, calcium and magnesium ions and microorganisms in drinking water would be released, contaminating the air quality indoors.

Explanation

Zhao Feihong, head of the Beijing Health Care Association's drinking water committee, said: "Drinking water has been processed and sanitized, making it impossible for it to have any pathogenic microorganisms.

"It's true that there would be some white powder left inside the humidifier or on some surfaces because of the calcium and magnesium ions in the drinking water, but they are not pollutants like those found in smog."

Peng Yingdeng, a researcher from the Beijing Research Institute of Environmental Protection, said methods used to measure so-called soaring PM2.5 concentration levels created after using drinking water in humidifiers are not scientific or authentic, creating misleading results.

Burning gas

A study conducted three-years ago said burning gas could generate large quantities of vapors in the air, which could combine with airborne pollutants to cause smog. Some people said gas consumption could discharge nitrogen oxides, worsening air pollution and proving gas is not clean energy.

Explanation

Wang Zifa, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Atmospheric Physics, said: "Based on current gas consumption in China, vapor generated totals 300 million metric tons annually. If all of the vapor was turned into water, which is impossible, it would only account for the equivalent of one-millienth of China's annual rainfall, too small to make difference."

Feng Yinchang, an environmental professor at Nan-kai University, said that many cities have installed equipment to reduce nitrogen oxides, which have helped keep emissions under control.

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