China's thick smog arrives in Japan

[The Straight Story]

China's thick smog arrives in Japan

The suffocating smog that blanketed swathes of China is now hitting parts of Japan, sparking warnings Monday of health fears for the young and the sick.

The environment ministry's website has been overloaded as worried users log on to try to find out what is coming their way.

"Access to our air-pollution monitoring system has been almost impossible since last week, and the telephone here has been constantly ringing because worried people keep asking us about the impact on health," said an environment ministry official.

Pictures of Beijing and other Chinese cities shrouded in thick, choking smog played out across television screens in Japan last week.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130204-chinas-thick-smog-arrives-japan

[Art_from_Ark]

1. According to this Japanese article, it appears to be particularly bad in western Japan

Japanese standards for air-borne particulate matter (PM 2.5) have been exceeded in the cities of Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Osaka, among others. Fukuoka Prefecture (state), on the island of Kyushu, has announced that it will set up 10 additional measuring sites, for a total of 21, and post some of the data on its home page. Data from Tokyo and other parts of eastern Japan are inconclusive about the effects of the pollution from China.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/eco/news/20130204-OYT1T01746.htm?from=ylist

Compounding matters is the upcoming Japanese cedar (sugi) pollen season, which can be as bad as ragweed for allergies. *Cough cough*

[Bonobo]

2. No problems here...

But then again, I am surrounded by the sea so we get amazing air exchange.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. I was about to ask you how things were over there

Over here in the east, we've got a lot of haze, but it could be mostly from pollen rather than Chinese pollution.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. There was just a blurb about the Chinese pollution on NHK News just now

Did you see it? Apparently, by Friday it had reached the Hokuriku and Tohoku regions on the Sea of Japan coast, but their little graphic showed it dissipating before it reached the Tokyo area.

[Bonobo]

5. No, Art, I didn't. I think ocean breezes are enough to break that stuff up pretty good though.

How have you been by the way? Looking forward to the ume myself...

Right now I have two kids going through juken process (daigakunyuushi and koukounyuushi) -just another 2 weeks to go.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. There is a park near here that is famous for ume

Kairakuen, which is considered one of the "Big Three" gardens in Japan.

I've managed to get through the winter so far without any adverse health effects, although the flu has been going around the local schools.

I understand completely about 高校入試 and 大学入試. I hope you don't have to fork out too much money for that. Of course, the "fun" part comes when the kid makes it into a university, or a private high school.