Panoramic view of buildings covered with polluted air in Seoul on April 12, 2023.
Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images
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Panoramic view of buildings covered with polluted air in Seoul on April 12, 2023.
Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images
This week, Canada and parts of the United States faced an unprecedented decline in air quality due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires, but people in other parts of the world have long had to. adjust and adapt to live with dangerous levels of pollution. In some cases, those levels have improved over time.
NPR reporters Anthony Kuhn and Eyder Peralta and freelance reporters Shalu Yadav and Kate Bartlett talk about the situation in Beijing, Seoul, New Delhi, Mexico City and Johannesburg.
From Beijing to Seoul
I visited Beijing for the first time in 1982 and lived there most of the time from 1992 to 2018.
For most of the years I was there, the pollution was terrible, especially in winter, although we had no way of measuring it. The air smelled strongly of sulfur and soot was everywhere. For me, it’s simply the cost of covering — and living — an epic story. People are less aware now of the difference between weather and pollution, fog and smog.
NPR’s Anthony Kuhn (right), with Bob Woodruff (centre) and Karson Yiu (left), both of ABC News, at the Beijing Workers Stadium in May 2018.
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NPR’s Anthony Kuhn (right), with Bob Woodruff (centre) and Karson Yiu (left), both of ABC News, at the Beijing Workers Stadium in May 2018.
NPR
Before the 2008 Olympics, Beijing began to phase out the coal stoves commonly used in the courtyard houses (“siheyuan” in Chinese) of the ancient city of Beijing and coal-fired heating plants, to help clean the air before the Olympics. Factories have been moved further and further away from the city center. The coal-fired stove in the yard was gradually replaced by thermal electricity.
While the air quality in Beijing has improved in recent years, even now there are occasional dust storms blowing from the Gobi Desert, turning Beijing’s skies yellow in spring and covered everything in fine dust. An AQI of 500 or less is still a fact of life sometimes.
When I moved to Seoul in 2018, I happily assumed I would leave air pollution behind. But it followed me.
In China, we often talk about PM2.5, particulate matter that penetrates deep into the lungs. In Seoul, people call it “fine dust”.
Most of it blows eastward from northern China on the Korean peninsula. But South Korea’s auto and heavy industry industries have added their own smog to the miasma — North Korea reportedly has, too. Pollution is one reason Koreans have gotten used to wearing masks, even before COVID.
Environmental officials from South Korea and China have met several times to try to find a common solution, but there have been few immediate or visible results. There are many days where the AQI is above 100 or 150. I can’t do anything but cancel my outdoor activities and wait until the air clears.
–Anthony Kuhn, NPR Seoul reporter
Commuters walk in New Delhi on a smoggy day amid deteriorating air quality on November 11, 2022.
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Commuters walk in New Delhi on a smoggy day amid deteriorating air quality on November 11, 2022.
SOPA Image/SOPA Image/LightRocket via Getty Images
New Delhi
My dear city is famous for its heritage and Mughlai food — and known for its terrible pollution, reaching AQI levels between 500 and 600 in winter.
At that time of year, my morning starts with opening the AQI app to check outside pollution levels. That level determines whether I go for a run outdoors or find an indoor safe space at the gym where the air purifier is on display as a high-end facility.
But some days I don’t need my AQI app. Too bad I just woke up with my eyes stinging, I can smell the pollution in my mouth and lungs like an overworked machine that needs a break!
Shalu Yadav
Shalu Yadav/ NPR
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Shalu Yadav/ NPR
Pollution is so bad that some proposed research that inhaling is as dangerous as smoking about two dozen cigarettes a day.
“Craving for a smoke? Come to Delhi!” is an overused joke circulating in WhatsApp groups here, to share a soothing moment between the overcast skies and our lives in the city.
Just kidding, it’s a very serious health problem. an estimate 1.7 million Indians died of pollution-related illness in 2019.
In fact, it has become an important factor in my future decisions.
My husband and I discussed at length whether we should plan to have our first child and raise it in this city or move to another city. It was a terrifying thought – seeing our future child gasping and suffering from respiratory problems like so many other children in Delhi.
–Shalu Yadav, freelance reporter
Mexico City
Mexico City was once known as the most polluted city in the world.
The sun rises over Mexico City on a foggy morning, May 18.
Marco Ugarte/AP
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The sun rises over Mexico City on a foggy morning, May 18.
Marco Ugarte/AP
The air quality here is still bad — on Thursday, the AQI hit 123, not good for people with breathing problems. And you feel it – your eyes water, your throat rumbles and the sky looks hazy. But in the 1990s and early 2000s, air quality regularly hit 200. So how did it get better?
Essentially, the government has tackled the pollution problem with a complex system of countermeasures. Less efficient cars are allowed on the road for a limited time. And as soon as the air quality goes bad – the levels of ozone or particulate matter are too high – the government will order a ban on newer, more efficient cars from the streets. They ordered factories to reduce production, food sellers to be banned from using coal, and to stop road work.
If air quality is not improved, countermeasures will be more difficult. For example, that often means residents can’t drive to work or school, so they have to walk, bike, or use public transportation. If it gets bad enough, government offices will close.
All of this makes a difference. In the 1990s, measures like these were introduced on a monthly basis. Mexicans often joke that the air is so bad, so often that the birds will die mid-flight. These days, really bad days are rare. We only have a handful of environmental incidents a year.
–Eyder Peralta, NPR Mexico City reporter
Johannesburg
Africa is famous for its beautiful sunsets and open skies – Paul Simon even sings about them in his song “Under the African sky.”
So when I moved to Johannesburg as a reporter, after working in heavily polluted Hong Kong before, I found the fresh air in my tree-lined suburb to be a blessing. welcome change.
But in South Africa, one of the most unequal countries in the world, air quality depends a lot on where you live.
According to World Air Quality Report 2022The affluent city of Cape Town has some of the best air quality in the country, while Thabazimbi, an iron mining town in northern Limpopo province has some of the worst.
Such disparities prompted environmental groups to sue the government last year in a ground-breaking lawsuit in which a judge ruled unsafe levels of air pollution in the Mpumulanga coal mining area a violation of the right to air pollution. People’s constitution for fresh air.
Elsewhere on the continent, things are a mixed bag, with countries like Chad, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Egypt all having high levels of pollution, while Angola and Kenya have relatively low levels.
According to IQAir, one of the main obstacles to air quality monitoring in Africa is the limited source of reliable data, with only 19 countries across the continent being monitored.
Chad was found to be the most polluted of them all, indeed topping the global list is the country with the worst air quality in the world by 2022 – beating New Delhi. IQAir cites the country’s frequent dust storms as one of the reasons behind poor air quality.
–Kate Bartlett, freelance reporter
