A study published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" identified manufacturing in China as a major source of American air pollution. Global air pollution levels remained high from the turn of the century through 2009 even though many industrialized nations, including Japan and the United States, lowered their output of pollutants during that period. One of the reasons for the continued high levels of pollution is increased emissions from China, a country that manufactures a large amount of goods for export.
The extent of the air pollution is noticeable. Up to a quarter of the sulfate pollution in major cities along America's west coast is due to air blowing in from polluted Chinese areas. This results in lower air quality both in the centers of Chinese manufacturing and major US cities, including Los Angeles, California. Manufacturing workers in China are often the first to suffer from the increase in air pollution, but the dirty air does not stay on its native shores for long.
One of the biggest reasons that Chinese manufacturing companies are creating so many pollutants is that many manufacturers from North American or European countries have contracts with them for production. This actually results in a net gain in the overall air quality in America, with the factories on the nation's east coast closed due to outsourcing and thus producing fewer pollutants. This lack of pollution is not fully balanced by the incoming air pollution from China and, as more of America's population lives on its eastern seaboard than its west coast, this means that the overall air quality in America based on population density is actually better because of this situation. It is still quite bad on the west coast, however.
The air pollution coming out of China is made of anthropogenic sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and black carbon. A fifth or more of these potentially hazardous air pollution elements are produced in the nation during the creation of goods for export, meaning that the demand for cheaper cellphones and other offshored and outsourced manufactured goods is driving much of the problem. Links between black carbon and cancer, emphysema, asthma, and other breathing disorders have been discovered. In 2013, the city of Beijing in China advised citizens to stay inside for 189 days of the year due to the hazards of breathing polluted air, and lessened Chinese factory output in recent months may have actually been beneficial for that city as well as preventing the export of pollution to foreign shores.
As more companies begin to move their operations back to North American and European venues after the recession helped equalize manufacturing costs, companies begin to understand that air pollution is a global concern. Modern manufacturing businesses can learn much from these seemingly dire happenings in China and elsewhere, working to create factories that increase jobs without delivering pollution across the world as a whole.
(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)
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