31.01.2013 Peking
Der Artikel ist zwar aus 2011 aber immer noch topaktuell – die Redaktion.
One of life’s great mysteries is finally answered: “living in polluted City XYZ is equivalent to smoking how many cigarettes a day?” OK, it’s not on everyone’s top ten, but I’ve been asked that question many times by patients and by the media — and now I know what to tell them: a day in Beijing is like smoking one sixth of a cigarette. More specifically,on an average day in Beijing an average adult inhales a total of 1.8mg of PM2.5 particles from air pollution, which is 1/6 of the average 12mg of PM2.5 particles inhaled from an average cigarette. Yes, that’s a very strange number, but if I’ve done the math correctly, it is indeed true. And if it is true…well, it’s surprisingly low, isn’t it? First, let’s walk through the steps so we can all agree on the facts.
