Watch the video here.

Beijing woke up to a sandstorm this Monday. At first, it looked like just another “bad air day,” as I tell my kids. Then my oldest noticed that the air is yellow, and that’s how we clued into our first sandstorm.

According to China Daily, dust from southern Mongolia traveled south, blanketing our streets until Beijing issued a yellow alert, the second-lowest severity level and the strongest in nearly a decade.

But how to explain it to kids? CoolKidFacts.com says “A sandstorm is caused when there is lots and lots of wind. The wind whips up heaps of sand if by magic and carries it away for [kilometers and kilometers],” (and that’s how it got from Mongolia to Beijing). “They can be quite something to see. The clouds that carry the dust can be huge, and rise to over 305 meters, with wind speeds of at least 40 kilometers.”

Although it might seem alarming to kids, a sandstorm is a good time to remind them how quickly winds can change and how to protect their lungs by wearing masks properly.

Don’t play outside, keep your air filters on high, and have fun indoors until the air is clearer and the sand has subsided.

For more helpful facts and hacks about living in Beijing, just follow the Jingkids International WeChat Channel. Scan our QR code and let us know what you need to know!

Sources: China Daily, CoolKidFacts.com
Images: Anna Pellegrin-Hartley, Cindy Marie Jenkins, Mina Yan, Uni You

Beijingkids has been an essential family resource for Beijing international families since 2006. And just as kids grow up in the blink of an eye, Beijing has grown and changed almost beyond recognition in that time. In Throwback Thursday we jump in the time machine, traveling through our 14 year-strong blog archives to dig out the most entertaining, fascinating, and thought-provoking stories for your reading pleasure. Ready? Let’s go…

This week, we travel back in time to January 2013 when Beijing reportedly finally decided to ‘do something about the smog’. While smog in the capital was by no means a new phenomenon (there is evidence that Beijing’s air has been atrocious since as early as the Yuan Dynasty), the term ‘airpocalypse’ first came into common usage in 2013 when measurement technology and a growing awareness of the negative health impacts of air pollution reached critical mass in the West and resulted in an explosion of interest in the topic. On Jan 12 of that year, AQI readings reportedly jumped as high as 993 in certain neighborhoods.

Can you identify the famous Beijing landmark in this image?

At the time, the New York Times, reported that “Beijing’s government implemented emergency pollution measures … in order to wage battle against the stubborn smog.” The plan included a temporary shutdown of over 100 factories and one-third of all government vehicles being taken off the streets. Yet even this was all only likely to add up to a 2 percent reduction in air pollutant density.

These days, Beijing is enjoying its cleanest air ever, and is now not even among the world’s top 200 most populated cities. According to Yann Boquillod, CEO of AirVisual, a company that monitors Beijing air quality there are even more interesting data to come, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold around the world. “We analyzed several cities in the world to understand their level of pollution during the lockdowns, and most cities showed that the reduced human activities resulted in significantly reduced air pollution”.  According to their report, Wuhan experienced a 44 percent decrease in PM2.5 microparticles in January and February of this year, which were their cleanest months on record.

For years, Beijing was a haven for pyromaniacs during Chinese New Year celebrations

While air pollution discussions usually focus on the emissions produced in factories and by vehicles, the 2013 beijingkids article also touched on another very topical debate: whether fireworks should be banned during Chinese New Year, “as they emit toxic elements like aluminum, copper compounds, mercury, lead dioxide, and more.” Fast-forward to 2020 and it’s nigh impossible to even purchase fireworks within the 5th ring road, let alone set them off, and for many Beijingers who moved here in recent years, the idea of dodging street firecracker parties and breathing thick clouds of the acrid smoke while walking between hutong bars seems the stuff of legend. How quickly things change.

You can read the original article in its entirety here.

KEEP READING: Parents Raise Concerns Over Prolonged N95 Use

Images: Geografiavisual, Hayden Opie via Flickr, the Beijinger

We would all like to think that we are more liberal than generations before us. Truth be told, we are still prudish when it comes to matters of sexuality and anatomy. Gender pronouns and their uses might have undergone a metamorphosis, but the discomfort with regards to matters genital hasn’t. Often the birds and the bees are discussed under sterile, almost clinical circumstances, leaving children to more or less sort fact from fiction by themselves. This groping in the dark has become a right of passage of sorts in certain parts of the world. Unfortunately, in cases where the searching children, in this case, teens, discover an anatomical abnormality in themselves, this ignorance often turns from pubescent discovery to medical disaster in the blink of an eye. A broad spectrum of such problems falls under teenage boys’ sexual health.

As comedian Dylan Moran jests, and I paraphrase, growing up a boy is easy. You have a finger up your nose and the other hand on your bits* and you grow taller. That’s just about it. Which is a prevailing sentiment when it comes to the general perception of boys and men and their members. But things are far from smooth, and hardly that easy for many young males who grow up in a pervasive silence overshadowed by the expectations of hyper-masculinity and hyper-sexuality. Not being able to provide what young men understand to be mainstays of ‘real men’, they continue to agonize over solutions, often times aggravating problems that could have otherwise have easily been solved.

Erectile Dysfunction

One in every ten men suffers from erectile dysfunction. And while cases of ED have long since come to be associated with aging men and their declining hormones, it is increasingly becoming the case that younger and younger men report instances of ED long before their thirtieth birthday. Obviously, we can point an accusing finger at our modern lifestyles. A sedentary lifestyle has contributed to the ballooning of obesity rates all across the world, therefore becoming one of the leading causes of ED. Increased levels of stress, bad diets and irregular patterns have also been touted as some causes for ED. But there is one insidious cause that until recently had gone entirely unnoticed.

Air Pollution and Erectile Dysfunction

A study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine by researchers at Guangzhou University detailed how vehicle exhaust could contribute to erectile dysfunction. They conducted an experiment on four discrete groups of rats, with each being exposed to different levels of vehicle exhaust. At the end of the three-month experiment, those in the group exposed to higher rates of vehicle exhaust were found to have difficulty achieving erections. It might induce a giggle or two, trying to imagine a rat trying to achieve an erection, but the research in itself unearthed important findings. Common side effects of air pollution such as reduced lung capacity, systemic inflammation, and pulmonary dysfunction all contribute to ED.

This is of great concern to those of us who live in cities with less than idyllic air quality conditions. It also puts a different spin on the “birds and bees” talk all parents must have with their children. It is important to not only educate young boys how their anatomy functions, but also why, and what they should look out for. And in the case where this is not the case, they should report these problems to their parents. But also, the importance of not only wearing masks while out and about but also the need to invest in a good air purifier as a precaution.

Photos: Fatherly , wellingtonretreat.com , hosbeg.com , CNBC

Last month we profiled new research that found links between “silent” miscarriages and pollution rates in Beijing. In short, scientists across five Chinese universities conducted an eight-year study that tracked 250,000 pregnant women’s exposure to four common pollutants between 2009 and 2017. They established that “in all groups, maternal exposure to each air pollutant was associated with the risk [of a silent miscarriage].”

While efforts to reduce pollution in the PRC are well underway, and before long, we’ll all be breathing clean sighs of relief, the damage that has been done will take a bit longer to reverse.

This is evidenced by a report from another study published earlier this year in the journal, Environmental Pollution, entitled, “Spatial Distribution of Lead Contamination in Soil and Equipment Dust at Children’s Playgrounds in Beijing, China”. This study, as its name suggests, analyzed the presence of lead contaminants both in the soil of children’s playgrounds, as well as in the dust that sits on the equipment children climb on and play around.

The authors, representing Tsinghua University, the University of Cambridge, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Shaanxi Normal University, note that: “In quantifying child lead exposure, established health risk assessment (HRA) approaches often take into account residential soil lead levels. However, this may not constitute a significant exposure source for children in urban mainland China, where the population mainly dwell in high-rise buildings without back or front yards.” Thus, they conclude that “In this setting, children’s playgrounds may represent a more probable exposure source.”

On this front alone, the researchers found that of the 71 playgrounds surveyed across Beijing, the presence of lead in dust that had settled on a playground’s equipment was more than twice the average of that which was found in the soil. Likewise, average concentrations of dust-lead remained fairly consistent across Beijing, whereas the prevalence of lead in soil was higher at playgrounds in main city areas, as opposed to more rural parts of the Capital.

Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, the study found that “in certain areas of Beijing, the risk of blood lead levels (BLLs) exceeding safe levels was up to six times higher when based on dust exposure than when based on playground soil exposure.”

Unfortunately, statistical analysis suggested that all lead content resulted from both natural and anthropogenic sources – cars, factories, fossil fuel power stations, etc. – and that the dust-lead specifically, “may be associated with long-distance atmospheric transportation and deposition.”

So while curbing future emissions is undoubtedly necessary for the longevity of our planet, it’s also clear that in the meantime, current contaminants and pollutants will continue to build up on objects we routinely come into contact with. And that to preserve the health of future generations along with the planet, we need to devise strategies for cleaning up the mess we’ve already made, while also taking action to ensure that it doesn’t get worse.

Photos: Pixabay, Graphical Abstract

IQAir, the Swiss-based air-quality technology and data company has released their annual Beijing Air Quality Report, and it contains nothing but good news for Beijingers.

The report covers trends in Beijing air quality from 2008 to 2019 and shows that the city’s air has been getting better yearly by almost every measure since 2013, putting Beijing on track to drop off of the global top 200 polluted cities by the end of this year. That is quite a leap, considering that the city ranked as having the 52nd worst air in the world in 2016, alongside 139 other Chinese cities.

Could this soon be a scene from the past?

Yearly average PM2.5 concentration has been on a steady decline for the past five years, in which time it has more than halved from 99.7 to 42.6µg/m³. Following that same trajectory, Beijing should meet the WHO air quality standard of maintaining levels under 10µg/m³ by 2022.

The data also suggests a significant improvement in hourly air quality measures: 21 percent of hours were “good” quality in 2018, compared to just 5.2 percent of hours in 2010. Meanwhile, “hazardous” air is nearly non-existent these days, whereas in the period from 2009 to 2015 hazardous air made up about 5-8 percent of hours.

IQAir’s report provides monthly historical data on Beijing’s pollution levels

The blue, blue skies of the summer just-gone-by were also noted. In fact, this summer was the cleanest on record, and August the cleanest ever month on record with an average PM2.5 concentration of just 22.1µg/m³.

Check out the full IQAir report here.

Pollution still climbed last winter in the greater Jing-Jin-Ji area

Despite the overall positive air quality trend in Beijing proper, critics have claimed that the trade war with the United States may be threatening progress in the greater area that includes Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province (also known as Jing-Jin-Ji).

As South China Morning Post reports, an expert from the CLSA investment forum attributes the 6.5 percent rise in pollution levels in the area to the economic stimulus efforts in response to the trade war. Of the increased industrial activity, steel production is the primary culprit, which rose by 21 percent in northern China in the winter of 2018-2019. Although steel output continues to rise, its growth is slowing as efforts to curb pollution step up.

READ: Beijing Receives Good News From the Energy, Water, and Wildlife Sectors

Images: Unsplash, China Daily, IQAir

Previous research has linked air pollution to numerous diseases such as lung cancer, tuberculosis, low birth weight, asthma, and cataracts. Children are particularly at risk due to the immaturity of their respiratory organ systems. Now, according to a new study by JAMA Psychiatry, psychiatric experiences are more common in teens who are exposed to high levels of nitrogen dioxide and other forms of air pollution.

Joanne Newbury, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at King’s College London, along with her co-authors used data from more than 2000 participants who were all born in England and Wales in 1994 and 1995. Each child was interviewed at age 5, 7, 10, 12, and most recently at 18 about whether they have heard voices that others can’t hear, along with other psychosis-related questions. The study found that a total of 623 (or 30 percent) of the teens reported at least one psychotic experience between the ages of 12 and 18.

The study found teens living in urban areas have “94 percent greater odds of psychotic experiences compared to those living in rural settings.” However, Newbury cautioned that pollution is not the sole cause of psychosis in teens, but that the study’s focal aim was to find an association between air pollution and psychosis.

Nevertheless, by comparing the air pollution index to Sina Weibo data based on the sentiment in the contents of 210 million geotagged tweets, the department of Urban and Planning Studies at MIT and Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources at the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that high levels of air pollution in China may contribute to the low level of happiness reported by people living in urban settings. The results were published online on Nature Human Behavior on January 21 this year.

How can parents help to mitigate the psychological effect of air pollution on their children? Dr. Dorothy Dexter, a family medicine physician at Beijing United Family Hospital, suggested we should do our best to protect ourselves from air pollution, but it’s important not to lose sight of the greater foe and to make sure we avoid alcohol and cigarette smoke, eat a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, spend quality time with friends and family, and exercise regularly. The good thing is that these are factors we have direct control over.

Photo: pexels.com

Source: CNN.com

This week on BJK online: A step-by-step guide to applying for an e-bike license, “pollution blue” is gone… well at least in Beijing’s smog alert system, World Stroke Day, and more!

How to Apply for a Temporary License for Your E-Bike

Beijing authorities have released an online application channel for temporary licenses for e-bikes, which will be activated on October 31, a day before the official crackdown.

“Pollution Blue” No More: Beijing Authorities Modify Smog Alert System 

The city’s environmental regulators propose to remove the lowest “blue” alert for pollution and replacing it with just a “health reminder”, at a time when authorities say that Beijing’s air quality is gradually improving.

How to Help Someone Who’s Experiencing a Stroke

Monday (Oct 29) marks World Stroke Day, an international campaign that emphasizes the need for everyone to understand the serious nature of this disease. How can you and the first-aid responders at home act “FAST” to save the life of a stroke sufferer?

WeChat Group of the Week: Mommylosophy

How can mommies cultivate positive emotions daily while balancing them a bit more with the negative emotions they often face? Here’s a group for mothers who help one another raise the level of parenting consciousness.

Want to know what’s happening in the Beijing expat community? Tune in on WeChat account every Sunday morning for This Week on BJK Online, our weekly roundup of the articles and other essentials published on www.beijing-kids.com. See more of our previous roundups here.

Photos: Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, Sohu News, Medical News Today, Pixabay

After weeks of mostly clear blue skies, haze returned to Beijing this Monday, accompanied by AQI levels reaching over 150 by late morning. This is by no means the worst that capital dwellers have seen, considering the record-breaking Red Alert periods we went through in 2015 and 2016, and Monday’s levels went back down to 100 by early evening, with much clearer skies in the CBD and Sanlitun areas. Nonetheless, it was a reminder that Beijing’s pollution problem persists. And that return to grey horizons might be all the more jarring, given a recent article in Bloomberg (via the South China Morning Post) titled “Airpocalypse over?”

While the Bloomberg piece by no means reached any definitive conclusions, the speculation implied in the headline has left some experts skeptical to say the least, even as those pollution watchers admit that Beijing’s air quality is improving by leaps and bounds. Greenpeace climate and energy expert Wei Huang, for instance, points to how PM2.5 levels have continued to drop from January to July this year by 14.1 percent year on year. She says: “The past few years have seen a huge improvement in air quality, as the government turned the tide on weak standards through better filters and stronger enforcement.”

However, the challenge ahead is not to be underestimated as winter approaches and the cold season brings more pollutive activities such as scattered coal heating, as well as unfavorable weather conditions. The government has already announced this year’s draft winter action plan, with no intention of scaling back measures already put in place in 2017. We can say that air pollution has become a “red line” issue for the municipal and national government, setting Beijing on a track of continuous improvement.

And yet, those improvements are by no means reason to become complacent, according to Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) in Sydney, Australia. As he bluntly puts it: “It is definitely premature to say China has resolved the issue, not even for just the city of Beijing.”

Experts say the capital has made huge improvements when it comes to air quality, but that’s by no means reason enough to grow complacent

He adds that “The biggest threat to a return to unmanageable pollution in China is if economic growth is too strong, and too dependent upon central government financial stimulus driving SOE [State-Owned Enterprise] investment in heavy industry and construction.” Buckley surmises that a slower, more sustainable economic growth profile for China in the future will likely involve much less energy-intensive service and consumer-oriented sectors, which, in turn, would lower the energy demand growth profile. “With lower energy growth, zero-emissions and low-pollution electricity sources like renewables, energy efficiency, hydro and to some degree nuclear are better able to meet the incremental growth in electricity demand.”

However, Buckley cautions that if growth is too fast, as has been seen in the last 18 months, China will lean on all such energy sources, including coal-fired power generation. Though he concedes that “China continues to make a transition from its excessive reliance on highly polluting coal to less polluting gas for heating purposes, but this is just an intermediate step, with a need for significantly more building energy efficiency standards and distributed, renewable energy like heat pumps and rooftop solar.”

Wei concurs that recent pollution improvements are reason for further diligence and that there can be no room for resting on laurels. She says this is especially true for Beijing as winter approaches, and colder temperatures require higher energy consumption. “The marginal benefits have begun to diminish as all the lower hanging fruits were picked,” she says, adding: “For megacities such as Beijing, daily consumption of energy, thus, emission of pollutants is unimaginable. So we would only be able to make further progress if such excessive anthropogenic activities could be powered by sustainable and clean energy such as wind and solar, not by fossil fuels such as coal and oil.”

That being said, Buckley is quick to point out that the capital’s recent clean air successes should hearten Beijingers, even as the next step remains steep. He says: “More is definitely needed, this energy system transition will take decades, but China is a world leader, seeing the enormous industry and technology leadership opportunities this is creating. Electric vehicles, both motorbikes, cars, buses, and trucks, and lithium-ion batteries represent just one major area of China’s world leadership.”

Buckley is all the more encouraged because, as he puts it: “Technology convergence means opportunities keep expanding, and China’s government clearly sees this, both for domestic deployment and globally in terms of outbound exports, investment and capacity building in foreign markets.”

As if to summarize, Wei Huang says: “Only the deepening of energy transition could help us to put the bad smog days into the past for good.”

More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
Instagram: mullin.kyle

Photo: Beijing Smog, Asian Correspondent