I was a bit down with the weather last weekend so I started a poll on my Weibo microblog, asking people to choose a new warning label when the US Embassy’s AQI tilts the machine at 500 (which it did again last weekend). It’s now local legend that “crazy bad” had been quickly switched to a more proper “beyond index”, but this newer warning just isn’t very catchy, is it? So now you all can take the poll below and choose a snazzier label. I find that a little black humor now and then can lift the spirits…
It’s so hard to choose!
What is needed is a term that MEANINGFULLY connects air pollution to one’s health. Although it took a LONG TIME to establish, that link now exists clearly in people’s mind between cigarette smoking and heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer. So, let’s find the PACK PER DAY EQUIVALENT OF 500 and thus the day would be, for example: “A three pack per day air pollution level.” Of course, once validated, this scale could be used for other, less extreme days. Maybe some days would be equivalent to one or two packs per day.
Steve Misch, M.D.
Parkwayhealth, Chengdu, Sichuan
028-8531-7899
Ask and ye shall receive:
A 24-hour average PM2.5 AQI of 500 is equivalent to 75% of one cigarette per day. Yes, that’s correct — less than one cigarette a day.
This is sneak preview data from my next blog post…stay tuned…