Five months ago, Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau, spurred on by data released by the United States Embassy, adopted tightened standards and began disseminating information on extremely fine particles in the air capable of penetrating deeply into the lungs — particles that have been linked to respiratory diseases and lung cancer.
Pressure for such a move had built up because the Chinese public was aware that the United States Embassy was measuring and releasing data on PM 2.5 particles since 2009. The American data contrasted starkly with official Chinese findings of “blue sky days” and “good” quality air.
Since January, therefore, Beijingers have had two sources of information. However, while the data may have been comparable, the interpretation was often different with air deemed “good” by the municipal government described by the embassy as “unhealthy” or “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”
This embarrassed the Chinese government to such an extent that it publicly demanded that the Americans stop monitoring the air quality or, at least, that they stop making the data available to the Chinese public.
Read Full Article »