- Title: Dutchman's Smog Free Tower opens to public in Beijing
- Date: 29th September 2016
- Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (FILE - DECEMBER 9, 2015) (REUTERS) TRAFFIC, BUILDINGS SHROUDED IN SMOG BEIJING'S ICONIC STATE BROADCASTER CCTV BUILDING CARS DRIVING ON ROAD CARS DRIVING ON OVERPASS CRANES SHROUDED IN SMOG
- Embargoed: 14th October 2016 10:21
- Keywords: China pollution Smog Free Tower smog environment
- Location: BEIJING, CHINA
- City: BEIJING, CHINA
- Country: China
- Reuters ID: LVA00251MB0AT
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Smog Free Tower, the world's largest air purifier, was opened to the public in Beijing on Thursday (September 29) in a bid to increase people's awareness of environmental problems.
The seven-metre-high tower, created by Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde and his team, inhales dirty air and release bubbles of smog-free air.
Every hour it can clean 30,000 cubic metres and collect out the absorbed air over 75 percent of PM2.5, particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns, and PM10, particulate matter with a diameter of 10 microns or less.
But the tower is only one part of Roosegaarde's Smog Free Project.
Roosegaarde's plan is to collect smog particles from the tower and compress them into Smog Free Jewellery, which he hopes will attract more attention.
So far, a smog free ring and cufflinks are available. Roosegaarde says he had received requests to make earrings, necklace and other jewellery too.
The project is intended "to activate, to engage people," Roosegaarde said, and make people in China "part of the solution, instead of just feeling part of the problem."
Pollution is a sensitive topic in China, with thousands of protests sparked every year by concerns about environmental degradation.
Nationwide, China has earmarked 17 trillion yuan ($2.6 trillion) for investment in overall environmental protection between 2016 and 2020, state news agency Xinhua reported in December. Beijing itself has promised compensation to firms closed on pollution grounds.
Beijing resident Wang Aili, 34, said the smog free tower was necessary in a smog-filled city like Beijing to make people "conscious".
"(We) cough every day, and the kid dares not go out to play, and every day (we) have to turn the air purifier up to highest to bring it (pollution level) down and that's not for sure," she said.
Yujung Jeong from South Korea said the artwork offered people an opportunity to re-think environmental problems.
Roosegaarde plans to showcase the Smog Free Tower in other Chinese cities after the Beijing. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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