Major pollution in China

A friend and collegue of mine just got back from a conference in Beijing. He says that the air pollution there is incredible and after being state side a week, his lungs are still recovering from all of the pollution in the air.

Seems that as this country develops they will be a major contributor...how long can this go on until it starts having a major effect on their country's health?

 

I just left a buddy who's son is in Beijing as an engineer building infrastructure for the Olympics. Walks a half mile to work and needs a shower. He says they are going to shut down the air sources for the Olympics to make it look good on TV.

 

Forget Beijing, Their pollution is being imported to the US W coast, whether we like it or not

Thanks China

 

When I was there two years ago I heard the same thing, they would shut down industry around the games for a couple of weeks prior to make sure there isn't smog.

The big cities we were in (Beijing and Guangzhou) were pretty bad as far as pollution, but we went to a minor city and it was even worse. It was just a brown haze worse than any smog I have ever seen stateside.

The industry I work in uses lead and in the US the controls on it are very stringent. The soil around the facility has less ppm than the average in the area. The waste water that leaves the plant has less heavy metals than tap water. All the floor workers are required to shower with special soap before leaving the building, etc.

The Chinese lead industry is totally different, it is the wild west as has been explained by our CEO who has travelled extensively over there, looking to buy an existing facility in China versus building our own.

 

After years of rampant, unhindered and unregulated development plus an industrial revolution gone awry China is up sh*t's creek.

But not to worry, they're finally seeing their woeful ways and are rapidly "off-shoring" manufacturing to third world countries instead.

 

This is a very old issue and one that will have it's place in history forever. How do you get China to spend a trillion dollars over the next 25 year to just curb the pollution from {illegal} plants and factories? Leave alone reducing emissions from common everyday polluters.

 

I was over there about 8 years ago and it was horrible. I do not think that pollution is the big worry we have in that part of the world.What we have to worry about is a recession in the USA causing a recession in China and then dealing with a charismatic leader in China flexing it's military on it's own people and the rest of Asia.

 

LOL, probably North Korea or somewhere in W Africa