China experienced unprecedented heavy smog pollution in the winter of 2016–17. Northern Chinese areas surrounding Beijing suffered most seriously. At the beginning of 2017, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China started to implement a special focus research programme on the causes and control technology of air pollution with financial input of ￥2·47 billion, and the Beijing Municipal Government released its 13th 5-year plan (2016–20) for environmental protection and ecosystem construction. Both events emphasised a series of plans, goals, and measures and aimed to understand why, how, and from where the smog arises. These questions are complicated to answer because the smog pollution has been attributed to various sources and mixed chemical reactions between the source pollutants.1, 2 At the same time, concerns over the health effects of heavy smog pollution are rising, increasing the need to better understand the interlinkages.
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