Health Costs Plummet After Chinese City Acts to Cut Particulate Pollution, Study Says

摘要

Beijing residents checking the hourly air quality index online and strapping face masks on their children may miss the halcyon days just before the 2008 Olympics, when the city temporarily cleaned up its skies (at least, relatively speaking). But not every city in China has seen the air grow darker during the past half decade. The northern city of Taiyuan, capital of coal-rich Shanxi province, has launched several measures to reduce coal burning and emissions. Although its skies are hardly clear, they are clearer. And that has made a noticeable difference in health outcomes and health-care costs, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Health. During the past decade, Taiyuan has closed several large coal-burning power plants and increased environmental monitoring of its other factories-effectively lowering the average concentration of PM10-particulate matter 10 micrometers or less in diameter. As a result, average PM 10 concentrations dropped more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2010.