Smog

Environmental Impacts

There are many health and environmental impacts resulting from smog. Negative health effects of smog include eye irritation, asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and respiratory distress. When lead exposure, most commonly resulting from resuspension of lead-contaminated soil, is included as a component of smog particulates, increased likelihood of learning disabilities exists. High levels of smog, often signaled by ozone warnings, can cause lung damage in healthy people and create further distress among people with lung and respiratory illnesses. Chronic heart disease and cancer may occur as the result of long-term exposure to high levels of airborne particulates.

In addition to its unpleasant appearance, smog produces many environmental effects. It reduces visibility and its color can be viewable from many miles away. The U.S. Forest Service has documented smog-related damage to trees and moss in [Page 1237]Pacific Northwest forests. In China, pollution-causing smog is so thick and widespread that it can be viewed from space in the sense that the smog blocks telescope views of the landscape.

Smog seen across Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, in 2006. As of 2013, smog levels in some Chinese cities had surpassed safe levels for their inhabitants. While the World Health Organization sets a safe limit for concentrations of PM2.5 (the airborne particulates that pose the largest health risk) at 25 micrograms per cubic meter, the level had risen as high as 993 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing in January 2013. Levels surpassing 600 micrograms per cubic meter were also seen in Shanghai in December 2013.

Impacts of Industrialization

Particle pollution, also referred to as particulate matter, is a mixture of solids and liquid droplets that form both directly, as a result of pollutants released into the air, and indirectly, as pollutants combine in the atmosphere with other pollutants. Particulate matter that is less than 10 micrometers (PM10) are smaller than the width of a human hair and can enter the lungs creating severe health problems. PM10 are coarse dust particles created by crushing and grinding as created through construction. Fine particles, less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), are so small that they cannot be seen by the human eye, but they are detectable with an electron microscope. PM2.5 sources include combustion emissions, burning, and some industrial processes.

In China, now an industrialized world leader and economic powerhouse, smog has reached toxic levels. In January 2013 official measures of PM2.5, the fine airborne particulates that pose the largest health risk, rose to as high as 993 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing. Twenty-five micrograms per cubic meter is the limit that is considered humane and still safe according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Air purifiers and face masks are largely unavailable due to skyrocketing demand in the hazy environment. This danger became renowned worldwide when many athletes participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics trained in Japan rather than in the toxic capital city of China. China is hoping to make enough advances [Page 1238]in controlling pollution to win their bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

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