Surviving the Winter Pollution in China
The following article is from ChengduExpat Author Chengdu-Expat
12 Minutes Read
• Winter is well and truly on the way in China, and with this icy blast of weather, we’ve been blessed with another winter special: high AQI.
• Luckily we are more equipped than ever to monitor and protect ourselves from pollutants. As awareness increases of the dangers of PM2.5s (small particles believed to be the most damaging to our health), so does the range of products and services that can help – and some are more affordable than you’d think.
• To help with this, we've made a list of smart choices & buys when the AQI is high and tips on staying safe!
Know the Air Quality
Your health during the pollution will depend on whether you make sensible decisions - so it's important to keep track of the air quality daily.
Plume Labs
The easiest way is to download one of the free apps available for both Apple and Android phones that track the pollution levels.
We like 'Plume', 'Air Matters’ and 'IQAir AirVisual' as these give the local reading and the districts reading. There are websites that also give updates.
Some air purifiers tell you the air quality of the room, but they can't tell you the air quality where you're actually sitting or sleeping, only the air around the purifier. Luckily there are many great stand alone Smart monitors available, varying in price and range of things they can measure.
For simplicity’s sake, we find the Laser Egg by Kaiterra (599RMB at kaiterra.com/en/laser-egg-chemical/) both user friendly and cost efficient, and also has a useful mini-program. It displays the PM2.5 reading on an LED screen (so there’s no need to check an app like some of the others, although it can also be synced to your phone) and it can be unplugged to measure air quality on the move.
Wear A Mask
...and make it a good one... and wear/ use it right. Luckily since Covid-19 we're more clued up about masks than ever. Terms like FFP2 and N95 are confusing but refer to the differing amount of airborne particles that the mask can remove.
European mask standards (EN143 & EN149) will categorise masks into FFP1, FFP2 and FFP3 which remove 80%, 94% and 99% respectively. American standards use a slightly more intuitive system N95, N99 and N100 removing 95%, 99% and 100% of particles.
We would normally recommend the 3M N95 masks, the general gold standard for disposable masks (around 135RMB for 50 masks on JD.com). Alternatively, Californian company Vogmask make less industrial, high quality fabric masks, which can be ordered on Taobao.com for 80- 300RMB offering around 200 hours of protection.
If you are doing activity outdoors, wearing a mask is important. For cycling or running along main roads or in areas with construction – Respro masks are great, though be careful with fakes on Taobao. Totobobo also make great masks with replaceable filters (currently sold out on JD.com) but we found them less comfortable. We are yet to find anything that really allows us to take in enough air during a run - ID Masks say they specialise in this, it might be worth a try.
Lastly make sure it fits. Whichever mask you choose, and there are hundreds on the market, it’s vital it fits well. Check there are not gaps for air leakage. There are plenty of videos online to show you how to fit masks properly.
Buy an Air Purifier
The first step is to get the right size purifier for your space:
Most purifiers come with a recommended room size (适用面积) in square meters or they mention airflow rate (风机空载风量), often written as CADR, and listed as cubic meters per hour. An effective air purifier should replace the air in your room around 5 times an hour (although this depends on the CADR speed) so to roughly calculate this multiply the floor space, by the room height, by five and check your air flow rate is enough for your room or apartment.
XiaoMi offer a Smart air purifier that can be turned on by your phone before you get home with different machines for different sized spaces from 200RMB. Smart Air offers a cost friendly option (although it’s no beauty) from 180RMB which is very effective in smaller spaces (available at smartairfilters.com).
Smart Air have brought affordable air purifyers to thousands of people since 2013
Air purifiers become effective about ten minutes after being turned on in your home and sealing your windows with polythene sheets and shutting your doors will prevent leakages while your purifier is on. Keep track if the filters in your purifier need changing – some get more efficient with age and some have a surprisingly short lifespan.
Other Ways to Clean Your Air
There's lots of misinformation out there about plants - and other more...holistic ways to clean yout air. But these DO NOT help protect against PM2.5s.
A more holistic approach to purifying your space
Research released by NASA names Spider Plants (Chlorophytum Comosum), Devil’s Ivy (Epipremnum Aureum), Peace Lily (Spathiphylly, ‘Mauna Loa) and the Variated Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) as especially good for your home, removing benzene, and formaldehyde from the air - but they're more likely to spruce up your apartment than your lungs. Beeswax candles and Himalayan Salt lamps are also thought by some as having air cleaning capabilities. But we've put ours away, with our dreamcatchers.
Make Good Decisions
Whilst you can’t do anything to change the air quality outside, you can make good decisions to minimise your exposure to it:
Smoking
This might seem glaringly obvious – but in a city where smoking is so cheap and engrained in both dining and business culture, sitting in a bar without a cigarette might feel like an alien idea. However cutting out smoking is a sure fire way to improve your health.
Avoid Rush Hour
If you travel by bike or on foot, try to avoid busy roads during rush hour. Places like the ring roads and central axis have particularly toxic rush hours between 4-7pm. Taking the subway to cut across the city can really minimize your exposure to the pollution.
Exercising
There are conflicting opinions about which AQI level you should stop cardio activity outside. There are those that believe all exercise is more beneficial than not doing it at all, no matter what the air quality. Whatever view you take, it makes sense to monitor the AQI, time your workouts effectively and use side roads and river paths to avoid direct traffic fumes. Whilst most gyms here still don’t have purifiers, indoor air generally has around 50% less pollutants than the air outside.
A note from the editor: We know this Winter might be tough for many people, who are spending another year away from family - which gets especially hard in the lead up to the holiday season. Remember, you are not alone if you’re feeling a bit down. Reach out to the community, Take some vitamin D, get a TV box (those festive adverts!), and try to get some exercise. Spring will be here before you know it. We love you!
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