Air quality in Taian

Is Taian a city with high levels of air pollution?

Taian is a city located in the western region of Shandong province, which itself is found in the eastern side of China. With a population of over five and a half million, Taian has equally high levels of air pollution to match, coming in within the top 100 most polluted cities worldwide as of 2020. In late April of 2021, Taian presented with US AQI readings of 98, a number that would classify it as being moderately polluted at that particular point in time.

US AQI is a measurement of air quality that uses several different pollutants (the main five ones found in the atmosphere) to get a composite number based off of the volumes of these pollutants found in the air. Whilst a reading of 98 is not overtly bad for the particular time in which it was taken, it can be seen that in days prior to this, Taian had some exceptionally high numbers.

US AQI figures going up to 138, 185 and a sizeable 351 were all on record, taken over the months of April and March of 2021. This highest reading of 351, taken midway through April, would put Taian into the ‘hazardous’ ratings bracket for that particular day. This indicates that the atmosphere surrounding the city, as well as the air on street level, would be filled with a myriad of different contaminants, with clouds of smoke, haze, smog and hazardous particulate matter being found in abundance, in order to see such as high reading come in.

It can also be seen that Taian has large variations in its US AQI readings over the course of a single day, with lows of 72 being recorded, all the way up to 160, over double that of its lowest reading. As such, it is apparent that Taian is subject to some unhealthy levels of air pollution, with some days being on the extreme end of this spectrum.

In order to safeguard against such high levels of pollution, preventative measures such as the wearing of fine particle filtering masks, avoiding outdoor activity or exercise if possible (due to exercise raising the heart rate and thus increasing one’s respiration, causing an individual to inhale far more pollution) all become a necessity. Air quality maps such as the one available at the top of this page, or on the AirVisual app can aid greatly in keeping up to speed with the current air quality conditions.

Why does Taian have such high levels of air pollution?

Taian has high levels of air pollution for many of the same reasons that other cities across China do. Massive increases in industry, as well as the mass movement of people, construction of houses and further industrial facilities as well as numerous other anthropological or weather based roles all playing their part.

With a large population often comes a large use, or overuse of vehicles. These are responsible for putting out high amounts of fumes related to the combustion of fuel within their engines, which can contain both harmful chemical compounds as well as fine particles. Heavy duty or freight vehicles can give off bigger quantities of noxious fumes, as well as thousands of tons of microscopic rubber particles that come from worn tire treads, which can have adverse effects on both human health and surrounding ecosystems.

Construction sites often give off large amounts of fine particulate matter, both of the coarse (PM10) and fine (PM2.5) variety. With Taian and many cities throughout the country experiencing rapid growth, the large scale prevalence of these construction areas will be a continuous source of air pollution, along with vehicle fumes, emissions from factories and power plants (typically using fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and diesel to provide their power) and even poorly paved or maintained roads adding to the overall level of pollution in Taian and throughout the region.

When does Taian have its worst months of air pollution?

Observing the data collected over the course of 2020, Taian came in with a PM2.5 reading of 51.2 μg/m³ as its yearly average. This placed it in the higher end of the ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ bracket, which requires a PM2.5 reading of 35.5 to 55.4 μg/m³ to be classified as such. This was only a few units away from being moved up into the even less appreciable ‘unhealthy’ ratings bracket, which requires a PM2.5 reading between 55.5 to 150.4 μg/m³ for classification.

This reading of 51.2 μg/m³ placed Taian in 34^th place out of all cities ranked in China over 2020, as well as 92^nd place out of all cities ranked worldwide, making it one of the top 100 most polluted cities in the world for that year, a feat that it will certainly need to improve upon in the coming years if it is to see an improved quality of air.

The most polluted months of the year in 2020 were at both the beginning and end of the year, with January being the most polluted with a high reading of 104.8 μg/m³, as well as December having an elevated reading of 89.5 μg/m³.

When is the air less polluted in Taian?

Like many cities in certain provinces in China, particularly the western, northwestern or eastern regions, the mid months of the year see the cleanest levels of air quality. May through to September had the best levels of PM2.5 on record, all of which came in with ‘moderate’ ratings of pollution. The readings were 30.3 μg/m³, 34.9 μg/m³, 31.2 μg/m³, 28.2 μg/m³ and 33.2 μg/m³, making August the cleanest month of the year, a repeating theme for many cities in China.

What are some health risks associated with breathing polluted air in Taian?

Some health issues that would present themselves would typically be related to the respiratory system, as well as the cardiac system and even skin. Topical skin conditions such as acne, eczema and atopic dermatitis would all be possible, along with irritation to the mucous membranes such as the eyes, nose and mouth, all of them being susceptible to chemical or particle related aggravation.

Chest pain, dry coughs and infections of the respiratory tract are common during bouts of high pollution, as well as other conditions such as pneumonia, aggravated forms of bronchitis, emphysema and asthma presenting themselves. These would be a few of the health issues related to polluted air in Taian.