Air pollution levels in Taiwan - grim reading

I know ther was largely rhetorical but yes you do really need to go to Kenting. I spent 4 days there and weather was a little chilly and cloudy but not at all smoggy. Yesterday and the day before were mostly sunny actually!

That was until I drove past Kaohsiung on the way back to Taipei yesterday which was bloody awful, as bad as I have ever seen it in Taiwan. A thick haze covered everything.
Kenting was only an hour or so away from the apocalypse.

The rest of Taiwan was cloudy and rainy so was hard to tell how much was pollution related.

This year (and the last couple of years) the pollution levels in Taipei seem to be quite bad. That may be my subjective estimate but thatā€™s what I perceive. Itā€™s could be related to the relatively low rainfall and mild winter. That is why pollution is so bad in the winter months in the center and Southā€¦very low rainfall at that time to wash out the shit.

iā€™ve noticed it too. absolutely sick of it. iā€™m not sure how they expect to attract all these tourists when the country looks like the bag of shit it does right now.

MTE. I find all the tourist-attracting ordeal hilarious when the pollution is this gross and everything is this ugly.

Dude you hate on Taiwan on at least two forums (Reddit) , why are you still here? :grin:

I knew I shouldā€™ve used a different username lol.

Well it was really bad in the morning, but then it got better.

My throat and lungsā€“and my body as a wholeā€“have felt like sh*t the past while. Could this be part of the problem?

Guy

I think youā€™re right. I always feel those dust storms as a stinging sensation inside my nostrils, and thatā€™s what Iā€™ve been feeling today.

The first time I visited It also bothered me. Then I saw so many people wearing masks.
Before visiting the second time, I bought air pollution masks from Airhale.com
I should say that it helped quite a lot

This map shows a model of concentrations of carbon monoxide for a period of time. Yes, China looks bad, but there are some worrisome flashes from Taiwanā€¦

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZBnJYuen5E

This thread reminds me of an old joke. Taiwan expat in South Africa has a cold he just can`t get rid of. He goes to the Saffie doctor. Doctor gives him the normal remedy. Does not work. Comes back a few days later. Doctor tells him to defecate in a tupperware container, add paint solvent, chemical sprays, and a whole bunch of other nasty chemicals, etc. Then the doctor tell him to close the container, wait an hour, and breathe in the fumes.

Expat comes back a week later and is full of praise. I was immediately cured, he tells the doctor.

You were not sick from a bug or virus, the doctors says. You were homesick.

Itā€™s crazy isnā€™t it. VERY interesting data that shows hiw much we DONT KNOW because we donā€™t have the right tools and analytics and research happening.
The whole country gets swiped with a CO cloud at different times, lets link that with data in heart attacks, asthma attacks and see if anything comes out of it?

Latest research is pointing to NO and SO2 and CO and O3 as being reallly pretty bad for usā€¦they all come out of vehicle exhausts. They act as signaling molecules in the blood or else as competitors for oxygen binding.

some sort of mountain climbing preparation.


:dizzy_face: :mask:

Its important people understand what the government is doing.

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A great detailed piece, with a focus on the impact of energy policy especially in central Taiwan, whose residents bears the brunt of health risks from burning coal.

A solution suggested deeper into the article: stop using so damn much electricity (in the case of Taiwan as a whole, around 50% more per capita than what is consumed per capita in Germany).

Guy

I lived right beside that plant that is being expanded.
I feel sorry for the people in central and south Taiwan that are being taken advantage of.

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This is part of a long history of decision makers in Taipei dumping dirty and dangerous elements far from their precious homes: heavy polluting industry in Kaohsiung; dirty coal in Taichung; low-level nuclear waste on Lanyu. Itā€™s not just an energy policy problem; itā€™s a problem with Taiwanā€™s political structure.

Guy

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Iā€™ve always had breathing problems that were corrected with septoplasty surgery (I had a deviated septum). My breathing has gotten worse over the years since Iā€™ve moved here. Maybe I should start wearing a face mask wherever I goā€¦

Prepare yourselves hoes. Tomorrowā€™s gonna be rough.

Most of the people you see donning a mask are not sick. Theyā€™re protecting themselves from the bad air and sick people. A few of them might be local celebrities.