gbcb

I met up with a group of friends on the other side of town for dinner tonight, about an hour's quickish ride each way. Along the way back, I encountered a couple of trucks spewing thick black diesel smoke and god knows what else. At another point, I was reaching the top of a moderate climb from an underpass when I encountered a sort of industrial solvent smell that seemed to burn my nose when I breathed in. Then I got home and discovered that today's weather included "floating dust" and that the air pollution index (API) was a higher-than-average 140-170 -- so it seems what I thought was "fog" on the ride back was not actually "fog". For a while after getting back, I couldn't breathe in deeply without coughing, though that seems to have improved now.

I like to think that riding, and particularly bike commuting, is going to do my health more good than harm, but Beijing has made me reconsider that. On exceptionally bad days (API 200+), I purposely ride slowly so as to keep my respiration rate down. My question is: should I really be worrying about this? I tried a Respro mask when I first arrived, but tired of scaring small children. When is pollution too bad to ride?

They say it will get better by the 2008 Olympics. I'll believe it when I see it.

brunop

dude! havin' lived off and on in both bangkok and delhi i feel ya! urban asia is so ****in' polluted it ain't even funny. so if you're waitin' around for it not to be, you'd never ride. i don't think ridin' in the ***** is gonna hrt ya anymore than walkin' would. wear a mask or somethin' is all i can tell ya.

khuon

This might be pushing the limits of acceptablity.



I hope your air environment is at least a little bit better.

cc_rider

When they announce a "code red" air alert, I try not to ride in the middle of the day. Happens several-to-many times each summer.

Or if I step out the door and it feels like I'm pushing the air out of the way .....

Roody

Um, duh, stop to think about something.

The air is no worse if you're riding than if you're in a car. I don't use cars much, but last time I checked they did not have magical filters that remove the pollution! Air conditioners sure don't clean the air. They just cool the air and cause more pollution themselves.

Eatadonut

You're also not breathing heavily or deeply driving a car. I also avoid driving midday on red-ozone days.

khuon

I'm trying to understand where you're coming from. I don't think the OP was necessarily advocating riding in a car as a way to avoid the pollution.

Banzai

So this is the world we've created...and it's not getting any better.

One of these days maybe we'll ask ourselves: "was it worth it?"

gbcb

Right, though in defence of car air conditioners, there are indeed some that filter pollen and other particulate matter. I'm more concerned about biking as opposed to walking (at most, taking the bus) since I do have a tendency to turn my commute into a workout, and am generally breathing quite heavily. I've heard that at a certain level of pollution, it's best to exert yourself as little as possible. Unfortunately, my guess is that in Beijing we are often above that particular threshold.

I remember reading a few years back about an oxygenated liquid that someone was developing which could be used to actually wash out your lungs. They demonstrated you could breathe it by dropping a mouse into a container full of the stuff. Haven't heard anything recently, but sometimes I think I could really use some of that.

gbcb

I was being glib. More to the point, I found wearing a mask uncomfortable, and didn't really notice a difference. I was using the basic Respro mask...maybe I should try one of the pricier models (apparently they are better at filtering out pollutants). Or maybe I'll just take my chances for the next few years, and then spend the rest of my life recuperating somewhere I don't have to worry about questions like this.

gbcb

I find it a bit annoying that there is no international standard for air pollution indices and ratings. Even between Beijing and Hong Kong, the air pollution indices cover different pollutant types, and are not directly comparable. I think your "code red" alert covers ozone, which is a pollutant ignored by Chinese pollution monitoring stations. I'd really like to know what a "code red" means in Chinese terms. Here, and fortunately for the Olympics, the pollution isn't as bad in the summer -- it's worse in the winter and spring thanks to a combination of low-grade coal smoke (from power plants and for home heating), car exhaust, dust thrown up by construction sites, and seasonal winds blowing sand in from the desert to the Northwest. Yuck.

I forgot to mention that when I arrived home last night, my face was covered in a fine layer of grit and grime

In Absentia

Unfortunately, if things don't change soon, there might not be anywhere like that for you to go.

gbcb

Way to rain on my parade!

Ok, well I'll just move to somewhere that's not urban Asia. I don't notice the pollution when I go back to North American cities, except on really bad days...although those really bad days still don't seem too bad. Ugh. What I can't figure out here is when I see people smoking while biking -- isn't the air bad enough as it is???

ken cummings

In your country taking extreme measures to protect you lungs might be taken as criticism of government policy. Not too healthy eh? A fully enclosed pedal car or Velocar could hide a lot of air cleaning equipment. if kids are scared by your mask, GOOD. Then maybe their parents will take steps to reduce pollution.

mtnroads

I have asthma so perhaps am more cautious, but I found Beijing and Milan impossible to run in when I was there, due to the particulates (I was a runner at the time). Just to much of all the stuff you mentioned. You will permanently damage your lungs in three years of that exposure.

Yes, you can do more damage than good when the air is that polluted. When you exercise aerobically while breathing particulates, they get deeper into your lungs, as there is less time for them to be filtered out in your nose, and you may well be breathing through your mouth at that level of exertion. And you get more of them due to the amount of air being inhaled. Particulates are usually worse in the winter months due to coal, wood and dung burning, plus inversion layers.

In addition to particulates, ozone is very toxic to lung tissues and will cause inflamation and eventual damage, sometimes within months. It is very insidious because after a short period of time your lungs compensate, but damage continues to get worse. You probably have a bigger problem with ozone in the summer, as with most large industrial areas.

I would strongly suggest using the best mask filtration system you can find, perhaps looking for a cleaner area (upwind) or time of year for aerobic workouts, and doing more walking, weights and easy cycling while you are there, to avoid permanent damage to your lungs. Seriously.

When you move to a less polluted area, resume more intensive workouts. Living on the north west coast of the US, the air doesn't get much cleaner, but we are beginning to see pollution coming all the way from China now - enough to measure in several places along the west coast at certain times of year.

gbcb

All right, I'm taking my Respro to Tiananmen Square!

Unfortunately, I doubt that some crazy foreigner with a mask (on a folding bike, no less) is going to convince anyone here. Besides, while pollution from cars is getting worse, I would say that the worst sources of pollution are still factories, coal-fired powerplants, and construction sites -- convincing individuals isn't going to do much when their options for protesting government environmental policy are limited. And the businessmen and government cadres in their black Audis aren't going to care what I do no matter what.

I don't think bikes are seen as an "environmentally friendly" alternative here. They are simply cheap, and in heavy traffic often faster than cars. But with the government building up China's auto industry, and most people convinced that cars are cool and a symbol of wealth, car ownership is going to continue rising quickly .

Artkansas 

Good luck, As a youth I remember tasting the lead in the air of LA when riding.

A former co-worker was raised in Xian and his reports of the pollution there were amazing.

gbcb

Oof. Unfortunately, I think you're right, but I have no idea where I can find somewhere "upwind" within a reasonable distance. Today's API is 290-320, which makes it among the most polluted days in the last year. I'll be taking it easy today. Thanks for the advice.

oilfreeandhappy

>When you move to a less polluted area, resume more intensive workouts. Living on the north west coast of the US, the air doesn't get much cleaner, but we are beginning to see pollution coming all the way from China now - enough to measure in several places along the west coast at certain times of year.

That's incredible! I'm not doubting your word, but I'd be curious to see a link to the study, for a paper that I'm writing.

gbcb

This guy (Dan Jaffe) gets quoted a lot on international pollution issues:
https://faculty.washington.edu/djaffe/

Other articles:
https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=5058 ("Invisible Export - A Hidden Cost of China's Growth: Mercury Migration", Yale Global Online/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/30/news/pollute.php ("A statistic clouding bright view in China", International Herald Tribune)
https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...llution-_x.htm ("Air pollution from other countries drifts into USA", USA Today)

May I ask what your paper is specifically about?