A new study finds that household fuels are a bigger source of smog in the Beijing area than power plants. Dirty fuels used in residential cooking and heating were the primary culprit, Business Standard reports.
"Coal and other dirty solid fuels are frequently used in homes for cooking and heating," said Denise Mauzerall from Princeton University. "Because these emissions are essentially uncontrolled they emit a disproportionately large amount of air pollutants which contribute substantially to smog in Beijing and surrounding regions."
In Beijing, 18 percent of the energy used in the city is from households. However, these household emissions are responsible for half of the black carbon emissions and 69 percent of organic carbon emissions, Business Standard reports. The study shows that the use of coal and solid fuels when cooking and heating leads to particularly high pollution levels in the air outside.
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The small particles that are released by cooking and heating are similar to soot and pose significant health threats. This type of pollution far outweighs the pollution being emitted from vehicles and power plants. This is especially true during winter, when heaters are widely used.
As part of the study, researchers simulated the impact of removing these residential pollutants from the air and found that there was, in fact, a correlation between the reduction of these household emissions and better air quality in the capital.
"Our analysis indicates that air quality in the Beijing region would substantially benefit from reducing residential sector emissions from within Beijing and from surrounding provinces," said Mauzerall.
[Image via Breaking Energy]
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