Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Assessment of Aerosol Concentration Sampled
at Five Sites in Beijing from 2005 Till 2007
Stefan Norra, Nina Schleicher, Doris Stüben, Fahe Chai, Yzhen Chen,
and Shulan Wang
Introduction
Beijing, the capital of China, comprises about 15 million inhabitants. This megacity
is highly affected by atmospheric pollution from various sources, such as combustion
processes in industry, households and traffic, further industrial emissions, abrasion
processes in traffic, and construction activities. These anthropogenic sources are
superimposed by dust storms episodically occurring in spring and transporting
particles from western deserts towards Beijing.
Typical characteristics of Beijing influencing the air pollution are a high popula-
tion density and high energy use intensity (Beijing covers 1,040 km
2
; on 6% of this
area 50% of the population, 80% buildings and 80% energy consumption are con-
centrated), an intensive coal consumption (about 70% of the energy is provided by
coal) and the number of vehicle increased very rapidly in recent years. Soil borne
dust contributes to a high amount to the TSP: Statistically, about more than 5,000
construction sites are underway at the same time. It is predicted that more and more
construction sites will be under way during the preparation period of the Olympic
Games in 2008, so it makes the TSP high due to the effects of demolishing and
removal of buildings, of uncovered bulk material piles, of material loss during the
transportation, and of uncovered earth. Industrial air pollutants affect local districts,
such as Shi Jingshan District with power plants, cement plants, iron and steel plants.
Fa Tou is another district with intense air pollution caused by chemical factories,
where odor and harmful gas pollution are serious.
Aerosols are considered to harm human health in various ways, especially via
the respiration tract and the cardio-vascular system
[1]
. The impact of aerosols on
human health is currently assessed mainly by the total mass concentration, although
S. Norra, N. Schleicher, and D. Stüben
Institute of Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Germany
F. Chai, Y. Chen, and S. Wang
China Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China
