China has a serious health problem on its hands. A new study in the medical journal The Lancet has found that in 2010, roughly 1.2 million premature deaths in China were attributable to air pollution in the country.
It has long been common knowledge that air quality in Asia, and specifically cities like Beijing, is far from safe. What is truly surprising is just how bad the air has really gotten in recent years.
This past winter the air pollution levels were 30 times higher than what the World Health Organization has deemed acceptable. Many news sources have adopted the term "airpocalypse" to describe the situation in China, and an allusion to the end of days may not be that dramatic. It's estimate that air pollution sapped 25 million years of life from the Chinese public in 2010.
So far, the Chinese government has done little to stop the airpocalypse. The economy continues to churn at a high rate of speed in China despite whispers of an impending housing bubble, and environmental protection in the country is almost non-existent. In fact, some are reporting that the Chinese government is actually trying to obscure the truth from its citizens.
"Calculations of premature deaths because of outdoor air pollution are politically threatening in the eyes of some Chinese officials. According to news reports, Chinese officials cut out sections of a 2007 report called 'Cost of Pollution in China' that discussed premature deaths," says a recent New York Times article.
It would be easy enough for most people to look the other way if this was just a Chinese problem, but it's not. The same air that spills out of factories in Beijing eventually makes its way to the United States, and sometimes in large amounts.
Just today, a large dust storm from the Gobi Desert made it all the way to Los Angeles, clouding the city in its haze. The cloud was transported via strong trans-Pacific jet streams, and air pollution can be carried in much the same way, proving that 1.2 million deaths isn't just a Chinese problem, it's a world problem.
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