I wear a motorcycle/bike mask under my helmet that uses a replaceable activated charcoal mask ( www.respro.co.uk ) although I also have a few paper elements that are washable, and have used these for a few years aside from the charcoal ones (all from respro). It is the reason I've just got to have a screen of some description on my motorcycles in PRC, otherwise if I don't then with the amount of riding I do each week, I'd be covered in crud. It's bad enough as it is. I make sure that I wear my mask even the 2-3km from my home to my work-place. And this is in a small town 30km away from a 3rd tier city. Here I am surrounded by mountains on the southern border and the sea and many islands therein on the northern border. Pity those in the big cities (SHZ, SH, BJ et al.) since I lived in SH many moons ago and could count the number of clear sky days/nights using the fingers on my hands each year. Even with all that said, I only need to leave my garage door or a window open here to find a layer of dirt covering every exposed horizontal upward facing surface (an ongoing debate with my wife! - best I don't go there!!!).

Unfortunately with the way things are progressing in PRC, the environment is but one part of the assaults (food supply chain, textiles, clothing, building materials and quality etc.) that any and all of us face just being here, foreigners and locals alike. Problem with this is that most of it is not something that rears it's consequences over the short term. The penalty is likely going to be paid further down the track. All of us should be more than just a little concerned about the supply chains here in Ch!na and anything exported from here. Hell Ch!na is not alone in the QA/QC, knowledge and enforcement of supply chains (horse meat anyone?!). Even when something makes the media/headlines it is akin to the horse has bolted. What about all the shady deals and wrongs that never make it to the media, or the misinformation that does the rounds on the Ch!nese mic0-bl0gs?

When I was doing my medical studies aeons ago, I can recall vividly looking at several cadavers and the pairs of lungs taken from each, one from a person who'd lived in the country (farming), one from a cigarette smoker (1 pack/day 30-40 years), and the other a city dweller. All were approximately of similar ages. The smokers lungs were heavily diseased, the lungs from the city dweller were ok but still not like the pair of lungs of the country dweller which were in pretty good order, free from disease etc. Now this was in a developed country with pretty strict environmental rules (one of my sisters is an environmental scientist and employed by local government) so I have more than a passing interest.

Nope it is fair to say that all of us are slowly but surely paying the penalty for living here, albeit in more ways than we might otherwise imagine. The consequences though are likely to be felt for many far and distant from now.