Source 3

China is currently undergoing a rapid increase in industrialization. As a result, emission, population, and health trends will modify the degree to which exposure to air pollution affects the health of China’s citizens in the coming decades. It’s apparent that the recent, rapid development in China’s cities and industrial areas has affected the air quality as of recent. Many Chinese cities, including Shanghai, currently experience annual average levels of respirable particles that exceed the World Health Organization’s air quality guideline. The health impacts in China consequential from industrialization result from exposures to a combination of pollutants, particles, and gases –mostly from combustion sources. These sources are different than those in North America and Europe; a large part in China results from the open burning of biomass and solid waste materials, and combustion of low-quality fuels, such as coal. The substantial rise in the burning of fossil fuels for power generation and transportation in industrializing China will wreak important penalties for environmental quality and human health in not only China, but other nations too.

 

Speizer, Frank E; Cohen, Aaron; Mehta, Sumi. (2008). Environmental Health Perspectives, Asia: Changing Times and

Changing Problems. 116, (9), 370-371.