Last month, I wrote an article about how smogs in China were affecting Korea?s air. Today, I would like to talk about how people in Korea are dealing with this serious problem, especially how Seoul City has begun the PM 2.5 Screening System.

           As you see, the problem was not so serious in the past, and Koreans didn?t even know about PM 2.5. Most of the alerts were related to ozone concentration or yellow dust. Yet the smog problem in China has gotten so serious that it is currently affecting the daily lives of citizens living in Korea.

           In order to cope with this problem, the Seoul City Office developed its own system of PM 2.5 measurement system. It used to depend on information provided by the Chinese government and the US embassy in Beijing, which has been posting hourly updates on its Twitter account. Nonetheless, the measurement devices are not very sensitive and the information is quite biased.

           Furthermore, the system only measures PM 2.5 in Seoul and people living in other areas cannot get any information about their areas. As a result, they are buying masks and air purifiers in order to protect themselves from the harmful particles. I believe that the government should construct a nation-wide system instead of just providing information for Seoul. Yet I believe that the most important thing is to reduce PM 2.5 emissions in China, since that is the ultimate solution to this problem.