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Comment by daVe23hu | Hacker News Reader

I used to work in China 2005-2017 off and on.... Air quality index in winter could hit ~800 in Changzhou - That experience was unreal.

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Similar experience in Vietnam.

It is a totally different type of pollution than California burning fires too... a lot of it is burning trash (plastic), industrial and/or automotive (motorbikes and diesel trucks).

I got used to changing clothes and taking a shower every time I came back to the house because I smelled so awful from the exhaust and pollution.

I left right before covid and this is definitely one of the things that is keeping me from going back after covid. It isn't healthy at all.

I've lived in SF since 1972 and have pretty much always known about Asian smog. And while it's rarely talked about, 29% of San Francisco's pollution comes from Asia [1]. I don't know about ships, but I assume they contribute significantly as well. I did notice a massive increase in smog during the height of the pandemic from all the ships anchored in the bay, so there is that.

[1] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es101450t#afn2

Friend who spent time there 2008-10 has a great line: "the air is a prison".

Worth to mention that Changzhou is a city on the south side of Yangtze River, where no heat provided to public, meaning that cities on the north side could be way worse due to coal burning for heat supply.

I had so many positive experiences in China, Zhong Shan, Ningbo and many other places.... People/food experiences so wonderful, fun and unique. I keep in touch with many of the folks I worked with in China. But pollution was the common denominator in my supply chain management aspects that shocked me. I have so many sad stories in that category. Just my observations ........

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