Air Pollution. The most relevant aspect of my life these days. So prepare for a whole post about it.
Everyday life consists mostly of university during the weekdays and frisbee during the weekends. Sometimes I meet friends for some food or drinks, but in a more sober environment than last semester within the buddy program. I dropped the Human Interface Design course because it was too slow and my group project partners were unable to communicate in English, but apart from that one the rest is worth keeping and occasionally fulfilling.
However, the most joyful moments for me are those little breaks from busy life, away from people, noise and city or together with like-minded people throwing around disc-shaped plastic. Sadly, both of these activities are frequently spoiled by the air quality, regularly forcing you into closed interiors because any outdoor exposure involving non-flat breathing is unhealthy. Add to this the fact that the weather would be quite perfect without the pollution, sitting at around 17-23°C during the mostly sunny day.
The big city life actually has a good thing: my hayfever is absolutely not showing off this spring, even though I’m sometimes out in nature. I can not say whether this is due to the pollution, due to the lack of grass around my neighborhood or simply due to the different flora, but I don’t complain, as I wouldn’t be able to get my special nose spray here anyway. On the other hand, due to the smog, my throat is dry anyway, together with my lips, eyes and the rest of my skin including my scalp.
I might sound like an over-sensitive whimsy, but I’m not the only one noticing health deterioration in the last weeks. While the other exchange students are definitely feeling it too, the Korean people (mostly the young ones) also start complaining about dry throats/eyes and constant coughing, adding that it got much worse just in the last few years and that it mustn’t stay like that.
The topic indeed seems to finally catch the attention of the broad public, including Korean politicians sensing that they might be able to buy some voters for the upcoming 2018 local elections with promises to tackle the issue. Even though the miserable air quality is definitely due to traffic and industry in Korea, that’s not the only cause. China constructed a huge amount of factories and power plants on its east coast in the last decades and, especially in spring, the west winds bring their emissions to Korea. Combine that with the dust winds from the deserts in western China (which however are not as hazardous as is the industry-made pollutants) and you have the common saying that China is to blame for all the bad air in Korea.
That’s false.
In the long term, not only does Korea have to pressure China to tackle the emission of air pollutants of their factories, but it will also have to change its own industry and infrastructure if really interested in an improvement of life quality for its residents. Until then however, those will have to take it to the face (and the lungs and the rest of the body) just the way I am sucking it up right now.
I made up my mind in the last weeks and pretty much formed the opinion that I would not come back to live in Korea, even temporarily, until this problem is sufficiently tackled. For me, this is just too big of a life quality inhibitor to endure. I found places where I can be alone in the greens to rest and gather energy for the hectic city life, but even at those places I can not escape my new unwanted friends named PM2.5 and PM10.