[Real-time] 27 cities released fog red alarm: electricity supplier daily to sell 3 million masks

The Beijing Municipal Air Pollution Rehabilitation Headquarters issued a message yesterday afternoon that Beijing will lift the “red heavy pollution air warning” at 24:00 on the 21st, and the emergency measures will be terminated immediately. The implementation of the vehicle rear limit traffic management measures will resume and education will be implemented. The competent department will also organize the resumption of classes for primary and secondary schools and kindergartens throughout the city.

By yesterday, the haze that plagued many northern regions had lasted for six days. How do you start red warnings and reduce emissions? Why are frequent haze times this winter? With these questions, the reporter interviewed relevant experts yesterday and answered many questions about the public in this heavily polluted weather.

Text / Xinhua News Agency reporters Wang Libin, Gao Jing, Wang Diqi, Ni Yuanjin

27 cities issued red warning, what effect?

The reporter learned from the Ministry of Environmental Protection that as of now, a total of 27 cities in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas have started red warnings, 18 cities have started orange warnings, and industrial companies have stopped production and restricted production, site work stoppages, and restrictions on motor vehicles.

The expert group stated that at present, the China National Environmental Monitoring Center and the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Monitoring Center and other units have formed a combined air quality forecasting technology platform, which can achieve 3 to 5 days of accurate forecasting and 7 to 10 days of trend forecasting. On the 14th, the platform made an accurate prediction of the heavy pollution process from the 16th to the 21st, and notified the relevant provinces and cities of the forecast information through the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

According to relevant experts, one of the necessary conditions for the formation of heavily polluted weather is the continuous calm weather, that is, the continuous accumulation of pollutants, and the initiation of heavy pollution weather emergency warning can effectively reduce the discharge of pollutants and slow the accumulation of pollutants. Therefore, the sooner you take red alert measures, the better.

The correlation analysis results from Beijing University of Technology and other institutions show that: Taking Beijing as an example, compared with the two heavy pollution weather responses in December 2015, the pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds were The emission reduction rate is even greater; particulate pollution such as emissions from motor vehicles has dropped by about 40%, of which 70% or more is the contribution of the single and double number limit line. The proportion of emission reductions from other cities' red alert measures to their total emissions is also around 15% to 30%.

Experts said that due to early warning and timely initiation of the red warning, and the active response of all sectors of society, the role of reducing peaks and shortening time was fully realized.

Mask under the "Red Alert": 3 million sold a day

In the first five days after the release of the Haze Heavy Pollution Red Alert, Jingdong Mall sold more than 15 million export hoods, an increase of over 380% year-on-year, and an average of more than 3 million per day.

Jingdong Big Data shows that from December 16th to December 20th, when the red warning started, Jingdong Mall sold over 15 million export covers, an increase of over 380% year-on-year; sold 110,000 air purifiers, a year-on-year increase of over 210%. PM2.5 detector sales increased by more than 105% year-on-year. Sales of autumn lung cream, fat sea, and white fungus, such as lungs and coughs, have also increased substantially.

It is reported that the peak sales of flood prevention products occurred on the 19th and 20th days when people felt that the haze was the most serious. The sales of masks increased by more than 935% year-on-year, the sales of air purifiers increased by more than 420%, and the sales of PM2.5 monitors increased by more than 200%. %. On the 21st of the data release, Jingdong Mall children's masks were out of stock.

In the TOP10, where masks, air purifiers and PM2.5 detectors were sold, Beijing ranked first. The top three sales, masks for Beijing, Shaanxi, Tianjin, purifiers for Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, PM2.5 detectors for Beijing, Sichuan, Hebei.

In recent years, in the face of air pollution that has plagued various regions, masks and air purifiers have become more and more people's online shopping "just needed." Ali Health recently released a survey report showing that the total amount of online shopping masks and air purifiers in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin ranks among the top in the country. Among them, the Beijing area has the largest investment in masks and air purifiers, and the total amount of online shopping has nearly doubled that of Shanghai.

Why are frequent haze times this winter?

Since the beginning of winter this year, heavy pollution has occurred many times. Some people feel that we have taken many measures, but how does smog seem to become more and more frequent?

In this regard, experts described the air quality is mainly affected by two aspects, one is the emission intensity of atmospheric pollutants, the second is the meteorological conditions.

At present, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region's industries are mainly based on thermal power, steel, and building materials, and are distributed along the Taihang Mountains. The energy structure is mainly coal, and the pollutant discharge intensity is still at a high level. The sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and smoke dust emissions per unit area are three times, four times, and five times the national average, respectively. The PM2.5 of major cities in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei increased by about 50% during the winter heating period. The high emission intensity of pollutants in winter is the root cause of the high incidence of heavy pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

In addition, extremely unfavorable weather conditions are also one of the important reasons for the frequent occurrence of heavy pollution weather processes. According to experts from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Wang Zifa and other experts, the strongest El Niño climate event since 1998 has affected the temperature in the northern part of the country in the fourth quarter of last year, and the process of heavy pollution has become more frequent. In 2016, El Niño switched to La Nina, continuing the climate anomaly.

Since autumn and winter, temperatures in northern China have been significantly higher, and cold air activities have been significantly weaker. Taking the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as an example, the average meteorological elements in the fourth quarter were all clearly deviated in more than a decade. For example, if the average ground pressure is low for more than a decade, the humidity is obviously high, and the surface wind speed is obviously small. The temperature of the mid-atmosphere, which is closely linked to the inversion of temperature, also reached the highest level in more than a decade, reflecting that the state of atmospheric inversion is obviously heavier, which is not conducive to the diffusion of pollutants. Especially since December, the temperature is too high, cold air activity intensity is weak, frequency is low, and air pollution diffusion capacity is reduced, resulting in many heavy pollution processes in northern China.