The China Forum of Environmental Journalists (CFEJ) announced on Sunday that the Smog Free Tower in Beijing has not been performing “efficiently” in filtering smog, and is now renamed to the “Smog Alert Tower”.
Designed by the Dutch inventor Daan Roosegaarde, the tower came to Beijing in late September this year. Tests have been carried out to check the tower’s stability and efficiency in filtering smog; but the results have not been optimal.
According to the CFEJ, during the past 50 plus days, the tower did show some signs of purifying the air of Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5), but the effect was unstable and the effective range was very much limited to its immediate surroundings.
In addition, considering that the World Health Organization states a recommended maximum of 25 micrograms of PM 2.5 per cubic meter over a 24 hour period, the tower is not doing a good job. The tests done earlier this November show that, within 5 meters of the tower, the PM 2.5 concentration is 89 micrograms per cubic meter. Within 100 meters, the concentration was measured at 109, Tencent Tech reported.
Despite Roosegaarde’s studio claiming that the seven-meter high tower could collect at least 75% of the PM2.5 and PM10 and purify 30,000 cubic meters of air per hour, it somehow failed to create a clean-air bubble around itself in Beijing.
Nevertheless, before the tower arrived in Beijing, Roosegaarde already stated that the air purifier alone “may create ‘bubbles’ of clean air, but cannot really rid cities of air pollution for good”. He stated that the tower’s mission task is to awaken public awareness about environmental issues.
The CFEJ also suggested holding a series of activities centered on the “Smog Alert Tower” to educate the public about issues of environment protection.
(Top photo from Baidu Images)