Life in China, 3. Air pollution and wearing a mask

3. Air pollution and wearing a mask

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There are people in the center of the picture. It became poor visibility due to PM 2.5 effect and could not take off.

Cities in highlands like Kunming in China are areas free from air pollution. Pollution's situation are differences depending on the region. China is very big so it can not speak uniformly. Beijing and Hebei in the northeastern part of China are no doubt that air pollution is a severe area, but even so, not all Chinese in the area wear masks. The wearing rate of the mask is lower for older people, I feel that the age group from teenagers to 40s has a high wearing rate. On the contrary, children whose age is below that are not wearing masks so much. On the other hand, foreigners who have visited Beijing to study abroad are wearing masks in a considerable proportion. I think that they thinks more seriously than the Chinese. Some people are wearing with a mask with cartridge filters, but it is not known at this time whether there is a need to do so. I think Air pollution PM 2.5 in China and hay fever in Japan are very similar. Both have an allergic reaction, the necessity of wearing a mask since 1990’s. Recently, we can know the situation of PM 2.5 with App in a smart phone. At low level of pollution and medium pollution, few people wear masks, but the rate of wearing of masks will rise sharply from the time it becomes high level. When it comes to high pollution, the visibility becomes whitish. As expected, this seems to have an impact on the human body when seen in the long term. Speaking of the brand of masks popular among local people, it is 3M. Those who think seriously are wearing things with 3M filter. The price is sold at around 10 yuan a piece. I heard local people seem to use the same mask for about a week. Because the type of fluffy type frequently used by Japanese people is sold at around 10 yuan with 6 pieces in a pharmacy etc, I feel that it is slightly higher than the actual price in Japan. Although I feel that it seems that we can deal with even using two pieces of that type of mask, I guess it is better to wear high-quality masks such as 3M for young generations.

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