Beijing was hit by
SARS
but spared by sandstorms.
For the first time since 1997, the Chinese capital enjoyed a spring
without sandstorms, allowing people to dispense with facemasks were
it not for the flu-like epidemic.
Li
Huang, vice-director of the State Meteorological
Administration, said: "The weather conditions -- sandstorm-free
in spring -- in Beijing were also good for fighting SARS."
Other areas in northern China also recorded their lowest number of
dusty days in five years, Li said in Beijing on Friday.
China recorded only seven periods of dusty weather in 2003 in the
peak March to May sandstorm season, compared to the average of 13,
in the past four years, the meteorological agency statistics
revealed.
Li
said Beijing had escaped dusty conditions this year partly because
of increased rainfall and the afforestation of Beijing suburbs.
He
said there is no scientific evidence linking sandstorms to SARS.
But healthcare professionals believe that pollutants caused by
sandstorms -- grit, dust and sand -- would have worsened the SARS
outbreak.
They said that a sandstorm-free spring was a blessing for a city
cursed by the unprecedented disease.
Yan Weizhong, a lung disease expert with Beijing Hospital, said
drifting sand and dust during sandstorms can trigger respiratory
ailments.
"The high density of small powdery particles brought by sandstorms
are most likely to ... cause people to cough and contract asthma,
fuelling outbreaks of infectious disease," Yan said.
On
average, Beijing has 5.8 days of dusty weather in a year. But the
city saw 10 periods of dusty weather each year from February 2000,
said Guo Hu, director of the Beijing Meteorological Station.
Li
said that strong winds tend to pick up sand from desert regions in
northwestern China and the Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, turning into sandstorms as they
travel.
But cold air currents blowing across north China were weaker this
spring and did not last as long as in previous years, reducing the
risk of sandstorms, he said.
Only two sandstorms struck northern China this spring, between
April 8 and 17, when strong winds carrying sand reduced visibility
to less than a kilometer, according to the meteorological
agency.
Li
said that China has closely co-operated with South Korea and Japan
in sharing information about sandstorms and strengthening
monitoring of the natural phenomena.
(China Daily June 7, 2003)