Pollution in Beijing constantly leaves everyone wondering just how unhealthy is it to breath in this city? Today the Global Times carried an article that adds a touch of anxiety to the debate, claiming that air pollution is a key factor in the rising incidence of lung cancer. The article goes on to present a more ambiguous picture however.
The piece opens with the alarming claim, “Lung cancer is now the No.1 killer of all the many cancers killing Beijingers, and most doctors believe air pollution is doing it.”
A spokeswoman for Beijing Cancer Hospital admits that there is a lack of statistics and data on “how much air pollution contributes to lung cancer,” but she adds “doctors know they [pollution and lung cancer] must have a cause-effect relationship.”
The Global Times article paraphrases Zhong Nanshan, director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, saying, “The national smoking rate has kept decreasing in the last 30 years but the incidence of lung cancer has risen four times.” It’s unclear, however, whether these figures apply to the whole country or a particular city or area. It’s also unclear why a director of the Academy of Engineering is being quoted on a medical issue.
Recently we ran an interview with Dr. William Chickering, one of four American Board-certified Emergency Physicians at Beijing United Family Hospital, who said of Beijing’s air pollution that the “great majority of otherwise healthy people suffer no lasting harm, even with 4-5-6 years of exposure.” Dr Richard’s blog My Health Beijing also carried a post recently about a study claiming that bicycling provides health benefits even in polluted conditions.
The Global Times article cites a study released by the Horizon Research Consultancy Group in August that shows 62.3 percent of Beijing residents believe the environment has improved since the Olympics, although presumably this includes many factors aside from air quality. As we noted back in July, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection acknowledged earlier this year that China’s air pollution levels actually rose in the first quarter of 2010 for the first time since 2007.
well i realised that when i firstime visit Beijing, Shanghai 5 years ago.
i still remember, when i saw the smog from the plane window...in fact i get really some scared after sawing the smog.
compare it with switzerland, it siems to be on another planet..."Mars" 
I really hope chinese are goin to change these problems. ectually thats one of the reason why i canceld to run business in beijing or shanghai. own health is priceless...if its gone, nothing can give or bring it back...
A Buddhist monk goes up to a hot dog vendor and says, "Make me one with everything."
And when the monk asks for his change, after paying, the vendor tells him "change must come from within"
As said by others, this is not speculation, the data are there, though local authorities hide the extent of the pollution. Official figures are worthless. We can only rely on the USA Embassy (now equipment is down). After 2008 air quality has gone down again and this year was really bad. After running several marathons in Beijing my lungs are filled with PM2.5 according to X-rays and Chinese doctors. Result: chronic bronchitis. On my blog (blog.strategy4china.com) I have more details. I stopped following the meaningless figures provided by Beijing. Biking is OK as long as it is done at Beijing speeds - slowly. For me, no more running here except inside an air-conditioned gym.
That's really disturbing. But in the other hand it's our fault why pollution became a factor for lung cancer. It was our fault, because we are not being cautious about the welfare of our environment.Thanks for the article. And to add something in the readers knowledge who are concern about health. This issue is about the health care law. Six months ago the health care law passed. The brand new health care program within the U.S. is going to go into the works starting September 23. There will probably be a few years before the whole bill is put into action. This is because some of it is very controversial. Thursday will not be the day every little thing starts however will be great for many individuals. It is the day coverage will be given to anyone who has pre-existing conditions. More Republicans are working to stop health care. There was lots of defense coming from President Obama as he defended the health care reform regulation. More Americans are starting to disapprove of the health care law as it begins, although Americans wanted the law as it was being voted upon.
Thanks for the referring to my post about bicycling's benefits outweighing harms. But your post implies that I think pollution isn't serious here. In fact, I've made it very clear in multiple posts that air pollution is a serious health issue. And in fact there are stacks of statistics which show a clear, dose-dependent risk of death from pollution. The data is overwhelming, not theoretical or abstract.
Doctors say this and doctors say that, but the numbers of cancer are rising. Pollution cannot be blamed fully but it can neither be excluded as a factor. We need further research to produce more evidence. Until then we wait.
I am really tired of all this science crap, all these statistics and all that nice talking. Most people I know suffer from chronic inflammation of varying parts of their respiratory system. When I walk along third ring road in the morning for 5 minutes, I feel dizzy from those odors. My advice is, if you have kids and you can afford it, get out of here.
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