If you currently live in China, and especially in one of its larger cities like Beijing or Shanghai, you are surely well-acquainted with the recent wave of pollution that eerily envelopes the tallest of buildings, often making it difficult to see even a kilometer in the distance. Although I can remember looking out over the Bund from atop the Oriental Pearl Tower in 2007 and seeing the city slowly disappear in front of me, the recent photos coming out of China are even more alarming. Recent smog readings on the air quality index in Shanghai have gone as high as 450+, with some lower readings in the high 100s, though a “warning to stay indoors is triggered any time the index exceeds 200.” 300 is considered “seriousThis has led many school children to be kept at home and has at least one eldery citizen carrying a 15 kilogram air purifier around with her wherever she goes. Indeed, from face masks to air filters to just staying indoors, everyone is trying to at least lessen their exposure to the air around them.

A surge in air purifier products and sales As one can imagine, this has also caused a recent surge in the number and variety of air purification systems being sold. Searches for air purifiers on Taobao, China’s largest online commerce site, have increased 513% for the week ending Dec. 10 compared to the preceding seven days, with a 1431.20% increase when compared to the same time period in the previous year. Actual sales of air purifiers increased 267.50% over the same seven-day period, with a 1264.40% increase over the same period the year before. This has led to good business for some of the biggest and most popular brands like Philips, Panasonic, Sharp, and Daikin, with foreign brands like these possessing 80% of the market. The average price per unit is around 2,000 to 3,000 yuan (US$330 to $495), with some even retailing for as high as 50,000 yuan (US$8,235). However, there is the further problem of regulation. As the overall sales volume of air purifiers is still low compared to other common household appliances, there are fewer standards governing the quality and effectiveness of these units, with some companies even “failing to specify or exaggerating the maximum interior area that their products can purify.”

And because there are limited standards, it can be confusing to know exactly what you are buying. air purifier manufacturers in usaFor example, does a 200 yuan HEPA filter clean the air better than a 40,000 yuan air purifier? air duct mold cleaningBoth may claim to remove a similar amount of pollutants from the air, but the price points are drastically different.how to clean laptop compressed air Growing array of options means new business opportunities However, this has not dissuaded Austin, Texas start-up Oransi from working to get a piece of the action. Peter Mann, the company’s CEO, is aiming to sell to businesses and individuals in China who will pay upwards of US$2000 for a single unit made with high-quality components, noting that this price point makes his product not intended for the masses.

Still, he has already sold his first 500 units and is close to selling 1000 more to his distributors in China. Mann is well aware of the vagueness in standards for items like air purifiers and says that he is careful with exactly what he claims his machines can do, though he is adding small U.S. flags on his products to indicate that they are strictly made in the USA in the hopes of setting them apart from the competition. And although the Federal Trade Commission does enforce penalties for false or incorrect air purifier advertising, the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate air purifiers at this time because “they aren’t considered medical devices.” Regardless of what they might promise to do, air purifiers of all kinds are being sold like never before in China, and while the pollution continues to be hazardous to many, it is also true that it has meant good business for others. It remains to be seen what will happen next, but it may be a good time for businesses to further expand in this part of the market and it will likely be those companies who can guarantee certain firm standards that will come out on top with the most units sold in the future.

Aaron Posehn graduated of the University of British Columbia majoring in Asian Area Studies and specializing in China, Taiwan, and India. A frequent blogger on China-related topics, he is also the author of “chinEASE,” an eBook that teaches beginners how to easily learn Chinese characters.No one knows how to merge, say road officialsBeijing – For most people, one of the first things that comes to mind when they think of some of China’s largest cities is the massive amounts of pollution. This September, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection is partnering with a Dutch engineer to send the world’s largest air purifier on a tour of some of the country’s cities most effected by air pollution. Daan Roosegaarde came up with the idea after a visit to Beijing in 2014 when he couldn’t see any of the city out of his hotel window, over thirty floors above the ground. After the trip Roosegaarde had the idea for the ion air purifier (similar to the types used in hospitals and homes) to filter some of the smallest, most dangerous particles of pollution out of the air.

The purifier is about 7 meters tall (around 23 feet) and will clean the air in a surrounding area of about 30,000 cubic meters (just unders 106 thousand cubic feet or “the size of a small neighborhood” according to Roosegaarde.) The tower uses 1,400 watts of electricity per hour, which is slightly more than running a dishwasher for the same period of time. The tower uses the ion technology to capture the particles PM2.5 and PM10, the smallest particles of air pollution which can be the most deadly. The smaller particles are easily absorbed through the lungs and into the bloodstream causing faster and more sever damage than than larger ones. The giant purifier is not an end all solution to air pollution by any means, especially in countries like China which still relies heavily on coal as a major source of electricity generation. Roosegaarde doesn’t intend for this to be the solution to any major issues either, instead he created the purifier as a way to “raise awareness” of the dangers of pollution.