Expats seek to beat smog with technology_美文_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Expats seek to beat smog with technology

The city responded by closing factories and ordering one in three government-used cars off the road.

Three months earlier, at least one World Health Organization body officially acknowledged outdoor pollution as a carcinogen for the first time.

For Woelders, an electrical engineer with several patents to his name, relocating was less of an option because he has a Chinese wife and child here. Instead, the resourceful Dutchman built an air-cleaning unit, which he claims is more effective at eliminating harmful chemicals and gases than most of the products consumers can buy.

It operates on a seven-stage process that even filters out bacteria and viruses.

"My son's kindergarten has a rule about needing to keep the window open to let in air," he said. "But if you open the window, you may as well switch off your air purifier because the pollution will enter faster than the purifier can clean it.

"My product is way more beneficial than most of what's available because my main goal is to solve this problem, not make a large profit."

Woelders said his do-it-yourself system took him about a year to build. It cost over 60,000 yuan ($9,840) and required the use of more than 170 meters of tubing.

He also spent 20,000 yuan on a portable air-pollutant tester, and last week forked out another 15,000 yuan on a secondhand piece of equipment from Sweden that produces thermal images showing the flow of air in rooms to detect any potential leaks.