▲ Left picture is scene of Seoul before fine dust, right one is scene of Seould after fine dust.

Air pollution is rising to one of the most serious problems in South Korea. It caused a number of death of people, and it is even increasing now.

▲ The size of fine dust and fine particulate matter is 10μm and 2.5μm even smaller than hair.

The main cause of air pollution is fine dust. What is the fine dust? It is the dust from Mongolian deserts and Chinese factories carried to South Korea by the wind. The dust is very tiny. So, even the hairs of the nose, mask, and even closed windows cannot block the dust. So, it permeates to the lungs through the mouth and nose, and it causes many diseases.

▲ A satelite picture of fine dust. Red means `bad`.

The poor air quality because of air pollution caused the death of many people. In South Korea, about 14,000 people died because of air pollution. However, in 1995, the number of dead people because of air pollution decreased to 13,200 people. Although it decreased, it is increasing again in the present. There is an increased of 400 people to the number of dead people by 5 years to 2010. Even then, in 2013, the number of dead people became 16600, which increased 1,000 people than in 2010. Recently, in 2017, the number of dead people reached 17,300 people. Like this, the number of dead people by air pollution is increasing more and more.

The eradication of the cause of air pollution is the only way to solve it. So, the way to reduce dust is eco-friendly working. As aforementioned, the source of dust is Mongolian deserts and Chinese factories. In the case of Mongolian deserts, planting trees and supporting them to grow well is an effective way to reduce dust. In the case of Chinese factories, changing them to eco-friendly factories can reduce dust of gas of factories. These ways can't be done by only one country. So, people are anticipating that the negotiation between three countries for solving air pollution.

June 8th, 2019

by YongChan Kwon