Residents take air quality monitoring into their own hands with new apps and devices

Besides facing hefty fines, criminal punishments and the possibility of closure, the worst emitters in China risk additional public anger as new smartphone applications and lower-cost monitoring devices widen access to data on pollution sources.

Azure Map, an application made by a group of organisations including the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Alibaba Foundation, provides pollution data from more than 3,000 large coal-powered, steel, cement and petrochemical production plants. Origins Technology in July began sale of the Laser Egg, a palm-sized air quality monitor used to track indoor and outdoor air quality by measuring fine particulate matter in the air.

“Letting people know the sources of regional pollution will help the push for control over emissions of every chimney,” said Ma Jun, the founder and director of the Beijing-based IPE.

The phone map and Laser Egg are the latest levers in prying control over information on air quality from the hands of the few to the many, and they are beginning to weigh on how officials respond to the issue. Numerous smartphone applications, including those developed by Sina and Moji Fengyun (Beijing) Software Technology Development, now provide people in China with real-time access to air quality readings, essentially democratising what was once an information pipeline available only to the government.

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“China’s continuing struggle to control and reduce air pollution exemplifies the government’s fear that lifestyle issues will mutate into demands for political change,” University of Michigan political science associate professor Mary Gallagher said.

Even the government is getting in on the act. The Ministry of Environmental Protection rolled out a smartphone application called “Nationwide Air Quality” with the help of Wuhan Juzheng Environmental Science & Technology at the end of 2013.

“As citizens know more about air pollution, more pressure will be put on the government,” said Xu Qinxiang, a technology manager at Wuhan Juzheng. “This will urge the government to control pollutant sources and upgrade heavy industries.”

People cross a road on a polluted day in Beijing on Monday. Photo: AFP

Sources of air quality data came from the China National Environment Monitoring Centre, local environmental protection bureaus and non-Chinese sources such as the US Embassy’s website in Beijing, Xu said.

Air quality is a controversial subject on the mainland. Since 2012, the public has pushed the government to move more quickly than planned to begin releasing data measuring pollution levels – especially of PM2.5, the particulates most harmful to human health.

The reading was 267 micrograms per cubic metre at 10am yesterday near Tiananmen Square, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre. The World Health Organisation cautions against 24-hour exposure to concentrations higher than 25.

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The availability of data appears to be filling a need, especially with the arrival of colder temperatures and the associated smog that blanketed Beijing and northern China recently. The 499 yuan (HK$600) Laser Egg has been sold out since the night of December 8, according to Origins founder Liam Bates.

Beijing’s first red alert was imposed between December 8 and noon on December 10, making “everyone realise the environment wasn’t as good as imagined”, said Bates, a 27-year-old Swiss national and a former Chinese television anchor.

“With more disclosure of the data, everyone becomes more sensitive, hoping the government can do something,“ Li Yajuan, a 27-year-old office secretary, said. ”It’s our own living environment after all.“

Efforts to make products linked to air data continue. IBM has been developing artificial intelligence to help fight Beijing’s toxic air pollution, and plans to work with other municipalities in China and India on similar projects to manage air quality.

“Environmental awareness in Beijing is probably among the highest in the world in terms of general public engagement in the issue of air pollution,” said Jonathan Batty, a spokesman for IBM Global labs. “We work with environment protection bureaus to give them insights so that they can act on it and provide that data to the general public.”