Chinese Researchers Emphasize Important of HAP Research to Ambient Air Quality
Improving air quality is a top priority in China, which the government has vowed to tackle. With up to 30% of its ambient air pollution caused by household air pollution (HAP), China will not be able to make substantial progress on improving ambient air quality without addressing this major contributor. An Action Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control was released in 2013 with stringent targets on PM10 and PM2.5, concentrations of particulate matter that lead to pollution, and was backed by US $290 billion in total investment from the central government.
In line with this priority and as part of the Alliance’s commitment to facilitate more household air pollution-relevant research in China through its China Research Platform, the Alliance convened a research workshop entitled ‘The Relationship Between Household Air Pollution and Ambient Air Pollution in China: Opportunities to Leverage Ongoing Research’ hosted by Peking University in Beijing this November. The goal was to establish a Chinese Research Steering Committee on this topic comprised of top Chinese researchers in health and environment and to identify research priorities and leverage ongoing research efforts and resources. Thirty professors and researchers from Chinese universities and institutions including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, China CDC, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences attended the meeting. Representatives from the US National Institutes of Health, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and professors from the University of Washington and the University of Hong Kong also participated in the meeting.
After concise research presentations by each of the groups, a smaller group of experts agreed to serve on the Steering Committee, which will be chaired by one of China’s top experts in ambient air, Professor Tao Shu of Peking University. Proposed research ideas and coordination mechanisms were discussed and the Steering Committee decided to conduct a systematic review of the existing evidence and identify key gaps and research priorities. This report will be completed in 2015. The next Steering Committee meeting will take place in January 2015, and will be hosted by Prof. Junji Cao at the Institute of Earth Environment of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Xi’an.