Perspective of Experts

Source of Smog and Haze No. 1: Rain hits the sun weathering, the pain of tailings

      China is a country with low mining rate and utilization rate. The amount of tailings after mining is amazing every year. According to statistics of China Association of Circular Economy②, in 2011, China produced about 1.6 billion tons of tailings, less than 300 million tons of comprehensive recovery and utilization (less than 20% of comprehensive recovery and utilization), and the accumulation of tailings occupied huge areas, which not only wasted valuable mineral resources and a large amount of land for tailings, And the dust and other harmful substances produced by tailings cause serious pollution to ecological environment of the surrounding area.

      China’s most widely used mineral grade of iron ore less than 30%. In 2011, the output of iron ore reached 1.3 billion tons, iron tailings 806 million tons, a total accumulation of about 2.451 billion tons of such tailings. The commonly used copper, lead, zinc and other non-ferrous metals mineral processing also produce more than 90% of tailing. Gold, silver, tungsten and other mineral processing after the tailings can be as high as 99%. The long-term storage of metal tailings, exposed to the atmosphere throughout the year,and will become powdery by weathering, and in dry and windy seasons, it is easy to raise a large amount of dust and pollute the atmospheric environment.

      China is rich in mineral resources, covering vast areas except Zhejiang and Jiangsu. The tailings of these non-ferrous and ferrous metals, as well as the coal gangue, which has been exposed to the sun for more than 30 years, have become the source of smog.

Source of Smog and Haze No. 2: Emission of Industrial Wastes, deeply affected by lack of orders

      With acceleration of industrialization, the quality of atmospheric environment in many areas has been affected, the problem of PM2.5 has become more and more serious. This is due to China's resource structure, which is dominated by coal, mineral and petrochemical-based energy and the problem is mainly fields of electric power, steel, petrochemical, cement and other industries, including fly ash, steel slag, cinder and all kinds of soot and other waste gas, waste water, waste residu. long-term unorganized discharge of the wastes make them the second main source of smog and haze.

      China is now the world's largest steel production country. As we all know, Iron and Steel Industry has long been recognized as the largest emissions of atmospheric and solid waste pollutants. The unreasonable structure and low-end feature of China's iron and steel industry leads to overcapacity and vicious competition, which contributes to consumption of resources and environmental pollution. Because most iron ore powder is piled up in open air, the dust is flying in the air. Furnace equipment discharge at will. Most of the smoke dust collection and filtration, desulphurization and other environmental protection equipment can not run for long terms, which fail to comply with current environment requirements. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will impose special restrictions on the discharge of air pollutants in six major industries, including steel, which has faced unprecedented environmental pressure.

Source of Fog and Haze No. 3: Traditional technology to treat waste have to swallow the bitter fruit of “secondary pollution”

      More than 90% of China's power, iron and steel, non-ferrous and chemical industries, cement, various kilns and other industries are using traditional lime-gypsum desulphurization technology On one hand, mining of limestone from the mines itself will cause large area of ecological destructions. At the same time, the process of mining and burning lime will not only consume a large amount of energy, but also produce a large amount of dust for poor treatment measures. On the other hand, desulphurization produces about 69 million tons of gypsum every year. At present, except very little part of that were used, 110 million tons of the desulphurization gypsum are stacked③. As a result: 1. large amount of cultivated land are occupied. 2. Serious land and environmental pollutions are imposed.3.The air polluted when the dusts are floating about. This kind of “secondary pollution” is called “circular pollution”   by the industry.

Hazards of smogs: Internal and external causes

      The harm of PM2.5 to human body is being gradually recognized. it not only leads to the decrease of immune function such as respiratory system, lung bubble, but also causes cerebral hemorrhage, hypertension, coronary heart disease and brain nerve atrophy, cardiovascular blockage and so on, and even endanger the health of the whole body organ tissue.

There are two kinds of hazards of smog: external and internal.

      The term “external cause” refers to that when PM2.5 absorbs a large number of harmful elements and compounds. The smaller the size of particles, the deeper they ener the respiratory tract. They will affect the normal circulation of blood, the human heart, brain, blood vessels of the impact of serious, resulting in a decline in human immune function, and lead to high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, cerebral haemorrhage, angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure and other diseases, and tracheal because of long-term inflammation can induce lung cancer.

      The term “internal cause” refers to PM2.5, which contains a large number of harmful elements, is adsorbed in grains, vegetables and other crops. Eating the vegetables will infiltrate in blood and organs, encroach on the organs of the human body, hardening blood vessels, resulting in the decline of human immune function, finally resulting in pathological diseases.

      Nature, as we all know, has its own purifying capacities, whether it is the sky, the six lands, or the rivers or the sea. However, due to the rapid development of industry and mining industry, more and more harmful pollutants, especially the rise of various harmful substances with rare metal oxides, can be said to have the sky in the water on the ground, one part of which is discharged on land or the sea, causing some animals and plants to die, rot and induce new viruses, or accumulation in animals and plants for long term. The other part float in the air. If long-term consumption and breathing the harmful substances exceed the standard of food and air, it is not surprising the body will emergevarious infectious diseases and strange diseases.

      According to the Ministry of Health, in the 1980s, the sub-health rate of the Chinese population was about 65%, and the incidence of cancer was about 4 million per year. “China's Annual Report on Registration of Cancer 2012”says that every 6 minutes one person is confirmed with cancer, every day there are 8,550 people become cancer patients, every 7 to 8 people die of cancer, cancer incidence is lung cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer and so on.

      According to health organization statistics: At the beginning of 2000, the proportion of sub-health in Chinese population was about 75%. Recently, most of the central and eastern provinces in China have experienced persistent smog days. The area with heavy smog is about 810,000 square kilometers, mainly concentrated in Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan and Liaoning, among which 20 cities have experienced severe pollutions.

      In face of such a severe situation, we should all attach great attention to it and come up with effective means of governance.
Pay attention to the source of smog and increase investment in environmental protection

      We know that, with tens of thousands of years of evolution, nature has evolved in an overall balanced body that circulates itself. In the same sense, the pollutants shall return to where they came from. Nature itself has a normal cycle of laws, such as the four seasons, circulations of days and nights, tides and life circles. If the cyclic order of nature is destroyed, then the climate will lose its proper balance with the living organism.

      Over the years, there has long been a cognitive misconception on global warming, which is to say  that the cause of global warming is  destruction of the atmosphere due to human industrial activity and CO2 emissions. According to my research over the years, I think the main cause of global warming is not CO2, but the uncontrolled exploitation of underground water, especially hot springs. It is overexploit of hot spring that causes ice to melt in the south and north poles, sea levels to rise, and the Earth's magnetic magnetism to decrease, finally resulting in weakening of the Earth's gravity and torsion.

      Global warming is also a cause of smog. Recently, the State Council has introduced a series of policies and measures to strengthen control of air pollution such as smog: In terms of energy structure, we will control the total amount of coal consumption, popularize the use of clean coal, promote the upgrading of automobile oil quality, carry out reform of heating metering, accelerate elimination of old and inefficient boilers, and raise the level of energy conservation and environmental protection of coal-fired boilers. At the same time, the central government will make full use of incentive and guidance roles of prices, taxes, subsidies and so on, and give tax policy support to coal-bed methane power generation. The central government will set up a special fund of RMB 10 billion, and implement “reward instead of compensation” for the prevention and control of air pollution in key areas. At the same time, it will formulate standards for energy efficiency and emission intensity of key industries, and provide incentives to enterprises that meet the standards. Moreover, it will improve the subsidy policy for purchasing new energy vehicles, and step up the elimination of yellow standard cars and old cars and Support energy-saving and environmental protection core technology and related industry development. In addition, responsibility assessment for the prevention and control of air pollution will be carried out. The environment supervision mechanism at state and local levels under the responsibility of the units will be improved, and standards for the discharge of air pollutants from cement, boilers, non-ferrous metals and other industries will be improved, and so on.

      The introduction of these environmental policies and the investment of funds will certainly play a positive role in control of smog. From the three major sources of smog: emission and long stacking of tailings and gangue, desulphurization gypsum piles caused by a large number of “secondary pollution”. From the introduction and the upcoming series of policies and measures, it can be concluded that the pollution of waste water has caused high concern among policy makers, and special fund has been set for dealing wit the problem, in taxes, subsidies on the tilt, and take a “reward instead of compensation” way to encourage enterprises to discharge pollutants in standard way

      However, it must be recognized that: The pollution of tailings and gangue, which are major sources of smog, the pollution of waste residue and desulphurization gypsum in the  as well as the disorderly exploitation of hot springs have not been drawn much attention of the policy makers. In reality, the local government and related enterprises also lack awareness and corresponding attention, not to mention financial support to treatment of the mountains of tailings and gangue, the industrial wastes, the treatment of desulphurization gypsum.

      It must be emphasized hereby that, because of the technical difficulties in our scientific analysis of the source of smog. The cause of smog, analysis of “smog contribution rate”, which appears in many media, is also controversial. However, the accumulation and long-term storage of tailings and gangue, industrial waste residue and desulphurization gypsum, as well as the pollution and metamorphism of air, soil, river and climate caused by the uncontrolled mining of hot springs, are indisputable facts, and they are the important reasons for formation of smog. Especially the heavy fog and haze in the central and eastern regions in this February has proved: This is the most serious period of air pollution in history, and it is also a crucial period that must be dealt with urgently.

Science and technology is the engine that disperse the smog

      Science and technology is the first productive force, for control of smog, we still have to rely on the power of science. At present, both at home and abroad, a complete set of mature and effective techniques and methods for control of atmospheric, soil and river pollution have been developed. At present, the local government departments and the relevant large-scale polluters, as well as the whole society, must really pay attention to and realize their own social responsibility, change the achievement view of GDP priority, proceed from the height of the construction of ecological civilization, consider the health interests of the people, strictly implement the relevant regulations and standards of energy conservation and emission reduction, increase investment at any cost, especially in overcoming local protectionism and narrow-minded enterprise interests protectionism. They should  be open to relevant environmental protection enterprises, for their entry and management.

      To take the road of controlling smog with Chinese characteristics, it is necessary to combine China and foreign countries, take lessons from foreign countries, and give full play to their own mature technology. The urgent task is to achieve treat the menace, feed the drug with precise diagnosis. take synchronous treatment to pollution sources, to achieve unit of the ecological, economic and social benefits.

      At present, atmospheric dedust, the elimination of industrial dust environmental protection technology can eliminate particulate matter emissions from the root. Sulfide, nitrogen oxides in the air can produce more toxic nitric acid or nitric acid aerosols, forming acid rain, posing serious harms. But the treatment technology has matured and gradually spread. In tailings and gangue treatment, industrial solid waste, desulphurization gypsum “secondary pollution”, there has also been advanced treatment technologies, with low cost andquick effect.

      It should be pointed out that it is necessary to make full use of advanced environmental protection technologies in China and win the trust of the polluting enterprises in a low-cost, quick-effect and high-benefit way.

      We should set up the eco-economic view of “both economy and environment”, accelerate the economic transformation and upgrading with the idea and measures of sustainable development, and adjust and change the industrial structure and extensive development mode of “low, small and dispersed”.