I know other threads have touched on this subject, but I just wanted to ask directly:
How can you people breathe the air in Taiwan? I stayed in Taibei and visited Gaoxiong, and could barely walk down the street in either place without getting dizzy. I’m cursed with asthma and I know this makes a huge impact, but I would think that even for people with healthy lungs the air pollution would be a problem. And yet, I know that some of you have lived in heavily polluted areas for years and years. Doesn’t the air bother you?
Guess I’m just envious of people who don’t have asthma
Actually, when I first came last April I was expecting bad air and smog. I have mild asthma too and I was a tad concerned from all the rumors I had heard about bad air in Taipei. I was surprised at the actual lack of air pollution when I arrived!
Compared to cities like Los Angeles, IMHO the pollution in Taipei is mild. When I returned in September it was fine too. Sure the scooter exhaust isn
If I’m out exercising during the day (and I’m not in the mountains, or the rain didn’t wash most of the crap out of the air the day before), I wear a mask. If not, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll have trouble with my lungs the next day. I haven’t found Taipei as bad as elsewhere, but compared to home, it is remarkably bad.
[quote=“derek1978”]Air Pollution? In Taiwan? You are joking right?
Actually, when I first came last April I was expecting bad air and smog. I have mild asthma too and I was a tad concerned from all the rumors I had heard about bad air in Taipei. I was surprised at the actual lack of air pollution when I arrived!
Compared to cities like Los Angeles, IMHO the pollution in Taipei is mild. When I returned in September it was fine too. Sure the scooter exhaust isn
I don’t have asthma in Australia, except after nasty chest infections (which I only got once, a few days after returning from a trip to Taiwan). In Taiwan, I have to use a (asthma) preventer a lot of the time. The doctor told me to use it every day in winter.
The air is not that great. If you go to 210.69.101.63/emc/default2.aspx? … reaHourlyE you can see the pollution levels. However, I’d take this site with a pinch of salt, as there have been some days with so little visibility, that made my lungs burn, and the pollution levels were listed as being moderate. Maybe it depends whats in the air at the time.
So, I don’t exercise outside, except on clear days in the mountains. We also have an air filter that we use if we have cold/bad chest. There’s a limit to what you can do.
[quote=“Indiana”][quote=“derek1978”]Air Pollution? In Taiwan? You are joking right?
Actually, when I first came last April I was expecting bad air and smog. I have mild asthma too and I was a tad concerned from all the rumors I had heard about bad air in Taipei. I was surprised at the actual lack of air pollution when I arrived!
Compared to cities like Los Angeles, IMHO the pollution in Taipei is mild. When I returned in September it was fine too. Sure the scooter exhaust isn
The suspended particles level acceptable here is 5 times that in Australia, in other words set the bar really high and there is no pollution! I’m sure we are getting more and more of the mainland’s mess now - last time I was in HK I couldn’t believe that people could accept living in a hazy orange murk with visibility of less than 500 metres :loco:
I’ve already addressed this in another thread. The air in Taipei is only a little worse than major European and American cities. SP is on par with many cities in England, and Los Angeles. Ozone, which is what causes asthma sufferers the most problems is better here than most US cities according to a Harvard study.
Taipei air is bad around really congested areas of the downtown core. It is also bad on days when we have an inversion. But anywhere in the world would be bad on such days as the air pressure traps everything.
Yes, there are some really bad days, but the majority are fair to middling. Live in the suburbs like Muzha if you have a problem. I can smell the difference soon as I get off the MRT. Most of you probably grew up in the suburbs so comparing that kind of environment to living in the heart of a city is unfair.
Anyway, statistics show I am right.
This chart shows average SP levels in Sydney to be 49. Taipei is not 200 except during sand storms. Sydeny SP levels by the way go up in winter as so many people use wood buring fireplaces. The air is such homes is going to be many times worse than downtown Taipei for SP levels. But I don’t think many Australians even think about that.
I was just told that tomorrow the remains of a dust storm is supposed to visit Taiwan, jacking up the level of suspended particles. Anyone else here the same?
The pollution is unreal; even on a bicycle, I get crap in my eyes the moment a bus or car picks up speed ahead of me. That never happened back home.
I had a yucky moment yesterday as I looked at some plants outside of my job. They were supposed to look waxy, but in fact looked duller than fake ferns. I reached down and rubbed a leaf between my fingers, and what came off on my hand made it look as though I had stuck it into an exhaust pipe. Not ground dirt at all, just pure filth from the air. Pure black.
Suffice to say, that plant proved much greener under the muck than I had previously thought. I wanted the rub the whole lot of them down so they could breathe!
I don’t enjoy the air pollution here, but I have found Hong Kong to be far worse. After a couple of hours in HK, my eyes were stinging and watering, and my throat was burning.
I’ve already addressed this in another thread. The air in Taipei is only a little worse than major European and American cities. SP is on par with many cities in England, and Los Angeles. Ozone, which is what causes asthma sufferers the most problems is better here than most US cities according to a Harvard study.
Taipei air is bad around really congested areas of the downtown core. It is also bad on days when we have an inversion. But anywhere in the world would be bad on such days as the air pressure traps everything.
Yes, there are some really bad days, but the majority are fair to middling. Live in the suburbs like Muzha if you have a problem. I can smell the difference soon as I get off the MRT. Most of you probably grew up in the suburbs so comparing that kind of environment to living in the heart of a city is unfair.
Anyway, statistics show I am right.
This chart shows average SP levels in Sydney to be 49. Taipei is not 200 except during sand storms. Sydeny SP levels by the way go up in winter as so many people use wood buring fireplaces. The air is such homes is going to be many times worse than downtown Taipei for SP levels. But I don’t think many Australians even think about that.
portfolio.mvm.ed.ac.uk/stude … tydiff.htm[/quote]
Your link doesn’t mention Taipei. I trust my burning eyes and daughter’s asthma over your figures.
Wood burning fires in Sydney? Canberra yes but in Sydney not an issue.
Living in Taiwan I simply apply the James Watt-Ann Gorsuch air quality standard from the Reagan days: As long as the air doesn’t have any lumps in it, its ok!
Jaboney: The paper here in Kaohsiung says that we’re due for some dust-laden air from Mongolia tomorrow… Lao3ren2 and xiao haizi are advised to stay indoors.
Nothing personal but the whole west side of this island is fucked air quality wise and comparing it to another place that is just as fucked is, well, fucked if you ask me. Los Angeles? Holly mother of god, saint of all things too absurd to even be funny, a place has got to be pretty bad when the best you can say is that it isn’t as bad as Los Angeles.
…
A slightly different issue but illuminating nonetheless…
On CNN today it was mentioned that even with the improved technology there hasn’t been an over all improvement in fuel efficiency in the United States in “twenty years”. Sure the engines are more effecient but the pig people just translated that efficiency into more horsepower, and in the case of SUVs, the power required to roll around in heavier vehicles.
Smog, global warming, traffic congestion, deaths from automobile accidents, reliance of foriegn energy supplies, loss of wildlife habitat, urban sprawl, cancer deaths, water pollution, bleh
Scarcely anyone gives a rats ass in fact. They will act all dismayed at all the problems, and roll their eyes at the dreadful air pollution, but how many will walk, ride a bicycle, use public transit? Exactly the number that can’t afford to do otherwise and/or don’t mind gambling with their lives on a scooter. It’s true here, it’s true in the States, it’s true in India, its true everywhere and until that fundamental issue is adressed or until some catastrophe or other threatens the oil supply nothing will improve all that much.
It is fair when people want to bring up their burning eyes and their company’s plants to make an argument about air quality. Almost everyone’s assessment is that the air here is so many times worse than anywhere they can imagine back home. Well, that is not true. Millions and millions of our countrymen are living with similar air quality.
I never said LA didn’t have bad air. I never said Taipei didn’t either. When I first came here I avoided downtown during the day. It is much better now and so I go downtown when the air is good. I don’t wander around when the air is bad.
As I keep repeating, air pollution here is mostly from traffic, so when and where there aren’t any cars the air quality is good (unless there is an inversion). The air in the evening, night and early morning is usually fine. So, out of a 24 hour day you might be breathing in bad air on some days for a few hours. In cities like Beijing where pollution is from coal fires or LA where the air pressure keeps pollution trapped in the city for days and weeks (in Taipei it rains all the time to break up inversions) the air quality is relentlessly bad. It was so bad the first few days I was in Beijing over the summer that I couldn’t decide weather to sit indoors at a bar and breath smoke, or sit outdoors. I finally chose indoors as being slightly more tolerable.
Look, I am not trying to be Pollyanna here, but nor do I want to listen to the know-nothing Cassandras. The air is not ideal, but when it is bad it is bad in a specific way and most of us can easily avoid the worst of it if we understand how and why it is bad, and take the RIGHT precautions. Bitching, moaning, and listening to anecdotes is not the right way.
Your advice on ways to avoid the damage is great Muchman for sure, but I am not convinced that “bitching, moaning, and listening to anecdotes is not the right way”. How much bitching and moaning happens in a society before people accept that there is a problem and anything positive actually happens? I suspect quite a lot.
Your advice on ways to avoid the damage is great Muchman for sure, but I am not convinced that “bitching, moaning, and listening to anecdotes is not the right way”. How much bitching and moaning happens in a society before people accept that there is a problem and anything positive actually happens? I suspect quite a lot.[/quote]
You’re right to a degree. But I am frustrated listening to the same anecdotes over and over again when the evidence is out there at the click of a button. I just don’t buy that most of the people who complain about the air quality are seriously worried about it. If they were, they would have have done a little research on it. Hence the accusation that they are simply moaning, which is their right if that’s all they want to do, blah, blah, blah.
