Dust pollution from China spread to Japan

On February 4, the Japanese government issued a health warning to the people when dense dust from China attacked the country. The Japanese Ministry of Environment's hotline is overwhelmed by anxious questions from people.

"The access to our air pollution monitoring system has been nearly congested since last week, and the phone here is constantly ringing by the Japanese government," said AFP news agency. anxious people constantly ask questions about the health impact of dust and smoke '.

Since last week, the image of Beijing and other cities in China is covered by dense white smoke that has been broadcast on Japanese TV channels. News reports have even released maps showing the ever-increasing pollution of smog across China and then gradually spread across the sea towards Japan.

Pink, red and orange colors show dust and smoke with the highest levels of pollution heading to the southern island of Kyushu.

Masks are the physical objects of the Beijing people on the road

The relationship between Tokyo and Beijing is now strained due to the issue of island sovereignty over the East China Sea. And on the streets of Tokyo, information about smog pollution from China spreads to make Japanese reactions more robust.

"China is our neighbor but there has been a lot of problems between the two countries ," said Takiko Takaharu, 50. 'The situation is ominous. This polluted thing is very dangerous, like poison that we cannot protect ourselves. It's so scrary'.

For their part, Japanese officials did not want to blame the air pollution on their neighbors, but Yasushi Nakajima, representative of the Ministry of the Environment, also affirmed: 'We cannot deny that there is an impact from pollution. gas in China '.

According to Atsushi Shimizu from Japan's National Institute of Environmental Research, over the past few days, the level of air pollution in Western Japan has exceeded the government's threshold in which the dust is extremely small. is a problem.

Dust pollution is spreading rapidly from China to Japan

Strong winds from the west carry floating particles in the air from the Asian continent to Japan. This expert said. The most worrisome is the concentration of dust particles with a diameter of 2.5 micro meters or less in northern Kyushu over the past few days that have exceeded 50 micrograms / m ^{3 of} air. Meanwhile the Japanese government standard is only 35 micrograms / m ^{3 of} air. This number in Beijing has many times exceeded 500 micrograms / m ^{3 of} air.

Yellow sand from the desert in Mongolia and China is a source of these dust particles. There are also emissions from cars and factories.'At this time of year there is definitely no gold sand. So they are toxic substances , 'Shimizu continued, warning that 'people with respiratory diseases should be cautious.'

Toshihiko Takemura, associate professor at Kyushu University, who runs an air monitoring station, said 'the impact of air pollution from China on Japan was discovered by science more than a decade ago'.

Especially in Kyushu, air pollution has been discovered daily since a few years ago, 'Takemura told AFP.'People in East and North Japan are late warning people about cross-border air pollution'. He also agreed with the idea that people with respiratory diseases as well as children should take extra protective measures to blame affected.