The American Embassy in Beijing was the first to be equipped with measuring instruments in 2008. Since then, measuring equipment has been installed at 80 embassies and consulates. The instruments measure particles of the size PM2.5 – the size considered most hazardous to health.
A study from 2022 showed that the results from the American measurements often prompted the host countries to take action against air pollution.
The fact that the measurement results are no longer being shared will have consequences for air quality and public health globally, researchers and experts believe.
They were part of a handful of sensors in many developing countries and functioned as a reference for understanding how air quality looked, says Bhargav Krishna, expert on air pollution at Sustainable Futures Collaborative, to the news agency AP.
Dan Westervelt is a professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University and was forced to interrupt an analysis of air quality in West African countries when Donald Trump took office in January.
I believe it poses a risk to the health of foreign service personnel. But it also hinders research, he says to The New York Times.
Even the WHO's air quality database will be affected. Many poor countries do not monitor air quality themselves because the stations are too expensive and complicated to maintain, which has made them entirely dependent on measurement results from the American embassies.
Of all air pollutants in urban air, particles are the group with the strongest link to negative health effects.
Through inhalation, they can be transported into the body and affect both the respiratory organs and other organs.
Two common measures of particles found in urban air are PM2.5 and PM10.
Source: The Environmental Protection Agency
