Friday, October 25, 2013

Blog 7: Suck it and see: Dutch artist's vacuum cleaner could clear China smog

Air pollution in China is big deal. Smog has gotten so think and noxious that the government had to respond. If the government did not do anything about it, there might be fear for social unrest. The statistics of how much particulate matter there is in the air is astounding. In the city of Harbin, levels of the potentially lung-damaging partical PM 2.5 is around 1,000 micrograms per cubic meters. This is worse than Beijing. Not only is particulate pollution detrimental to the respiratory health of people but it also causes decreased visability.

The world is consious of the air pollution problem and the UN and WHO are trying to make the issue less problematic. Different Theories have been speculated as to how to go about this. Some of these ways include shuttering factories and upgrading emission standards. There is also another innovative approach to the pollution problem and that is using a giant vacuum to suck up the particulate matter.

Dutch artist, Daan Roosegaarde designed a vacuum that can suck up the particles and can reconstitute them.  The vacuum cleaner is at present a prototype, but it could be used in future.  

This would be a positive thing to combat air pollution globally.  It would just a lot easier for everyone to have cleaner air to breathe.

Lillian Brown

October 25th 2013 
5:08 pm

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