Shanghai Air Pollution – Shanghai Health and Safety

Shanghai air pollution is one of the main health concerns for expats living here. Fortunately the situation has improved substantially over the last few years.

For today’s Shanghai air pollution reading check out the real-time chart in the right hand column of this page.

In 2013 the Shanghai government launched The Shanghai Clean Air Action Plan after serious air pollution attacked much of China that year. The action plan set the goal of reducing annual average PM2.5 concentration in Shanghai by 20% by 2017 from the base year of 2012.

In this article we take a look at the causes of Shanghai air pollution. We also list many measures implemented by the local government between 2014 add 2016 to tackle the serious air pollution issue in Shanghai.

Apart from fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ground-level Ozone is another air pollutant which should be a concern for expats. We provide some information about this issue below.

Finally, we take a look at a study which compared Beijing air pollution to Shanghai air pollution to see which is worse.

For other articles on air pollution please see:

What Causes Shanghai Air Pollution

So what causes air pollution in Shanghai? According to a report from July 2014 Shanghai air pollution is composed of:

• vehicle and factory emissions: 50 percent
• dust from construction sites: 10.5 percent,
• power stations: 7.3 percent
• straw burning: 10 percent
• from other provinces: the remainder

Another report from earlier in 2014 gave the following break-down of Shanghai pollution:

• emissions from industrial plants in Shanghai: 32.9 percent
• motor vehicles, ships and planes accounted: 25.8 percent
• dust, cooking and the agricultural sector: 19.8 percent
• pollutants from outside Shanghai: 21.5 percent

A report issued in early January 2015 listed the following sources of air pollution in Shanghai:

• 26 percent of the air pollutants in Shanghai came from other cities and provinces.

Of the air pollution created from within the city:

• cars, ships and other modes of transport: 29 percent
• industrial emissions: 29 percent
• coal burning: 13.5 percent
• dust: 13.5 percent
• agricultural production and the general public: 15 percent

Shanghai’s Air Pollution Law

In September 2014, Shanghai introduced the strictest air pollution law in China, which went into effect on October 1st.

Personal penalties for company bosses of up to RMB 100,000 were introduced for the first time, in addition to maximum fines for companies rising from the previous RMB 100,000 to RMB 500,000.

The prohibition on burning straw and other bonfires was extended to all of Shanghai, having previously only being enforced in certain areas.

Unfortunately the fine for farmers illegally burning straw, which causes about 10% of Shanghai air pollution, is set at just RMB 200, so not a strong deterrent.

In early October 2014, it was announced that a factory caught for illegally emitting air pollution would be the first to be charged under this new law and therefore levied a very high fine.

More Measures Implemented to Improve Shanghai Air Quality

Apart from the Shanghai Clean Air Action Plan 2013-2017 and the Shanghai Air Pollution Law of 2014, the city government implemented many other measures to tackle air pollution between 2014 and 2016. Here is a list of some of the measures:

Ground-level Ozone Pollution

Shanghai expats are familiar with the hazards of PM 2.5 fine particulate matter, but ozone is another serious pollutant which can damage our lungs.

Ground-level ozone (O3) is a problem for Shanghai especially in the summer months as volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) react with sunlight to produce ozone. Average levels increased by 12.8% in the Yangtze River Delta region in the first half of 2014 compared to the first half of 2013.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Ambient Air Pollution fact sheet, ozone is a major factor in asthma morbidity and mortality. It can cause breathing problems, trigger asthma, reduce lung function and cause lung diseases.

China’s Ministry of Science and Technology issued the draft of a five-year air pollution control project in March 2015 in which they acknowledged that ground-level ozone must also be tackled.

Beijing Air Pollution Vs Shanghai Air Pollution

Shanghai’s annual average PM2.5 concentration was 60.7 ug/m3 in 2013. This was far off the China air quality standard for healthy air of the PM2.5 average within 35 ug/m3 and even more worse than the much stricter WHO standard of 10 ug/m3.

Shanghai’s PM2.5 concentration that year, however, was still much better than Beijing’s annual average concentration of 89.5 ug/m3.

While Shanghai air quality worsened in 2015, Beijing air quality saw a big improvement. However, Beijing’s annual average PM2.5 density in 2015 was still 80.6 ug/m3, much worse than Shanghai’s average of 53 ug/m3.

So is Beijing air pollution really much more dangerous than Shanghai air pollution? Not for sure!

In studies conducted by Chinese scientists, PM1 particles, which are much smaller than PM2.5 particles, were shown to have much more serious consequences for human health. Though PM2.5 levels are lower in Shanghai than Beijing, PM1.0 concentrations at the time of the study were actually higher in Shanghai than Beijing.

So expats still need to be concerned about Shanghai air pollution and be sure to make use of the many air pollution solutions available here.