Up until recently, China was considered the main enemy when South Koreans were warned to stay indoors away from the polluted air that was mainly considered to be due to yellow sand from the deserts of the neighboring state.

With the increasing number of studies on fine dust and their health impact, public awareness has grown over the sources of air pollutants and how the situation was left untended to for many years. 

“The last thing I want is to be one of those fussy moms but as for the fine dust issue, I feel that I have to stay on my guard at all times to protect my child from irreversible health damages,” said Lee Seung-ha, a 35-year-old working mother, with a 3-year-old daughter. 

Lee, who works for a chemical company, often finds herself paying close attention to environmental pollution and its consequences.

“I know quite a number of parents that are so anxious over their children’s physical condition that they go as far as to make frequent calls to day care centers, fretting over every outdoor activity,” she said.

“Though I made it a rule not to interfere with the caretakers’ sense of responsibility, I do share my fellow parents’ concern, especially when I notice my girl coughing more frequently at the end of a dusty day.”

The surging risk of fine dust, according to Lee, should be addressed as seriously as other major environmental crises such as radiation leaks or water pollution, but it so far failed to receive due attention.

Recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports showed that South Korea could see at least 1,109 early deaths per 1 million people in 2060 and that South Korea’s average level of ultrafine dust particle concentration was at 29.1 micrograms per cubic meter, double the OECD average of 14.05 micrograms per cubic meter. 


“The humidifier disinfectant tragedy has bitterly shown how irreversible and deadly respiratory organ damages can be, and why they should be deterred preemptively,” Lee said.

Fine dust refers to particles smaller than 10 micrometers in dimeter which are known to cause various respiratory problems and harm the human immune system. A fine dust watch is issued when the average concentration exceeds 65 micrometers per cubic meter over the past 24 hours or remains at 90 micrograms per cubic meter for more than two hours straight.

Long-term exposure to fine dust has been blamed for causing not only respiratory troubles, but also cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, according to a study by Seoul National University.

Reflecting the growing sense of urgency, fine dust concentration has risen as a top-ranking weather forecast criteria, outpacing conventional factors such as temperature or precipitation. The most commonly cited database is the ministry-affiliated Korea Environment Corporation’s daily figures, though some consider the updates inaccurate.

“The official index (by the government) so often turns out wrong, indicating ‘normal’ on incontestably dusty days when one can barely see beyond a block’s distance,” said Kim Min-ki, a 33-year-old biology teacher and mother of two children.

“It may be wiser to trust one’s eye judgment rather than to be deceived by the faulty index, or to take the trouble to keep an air pollution detector which shows the dust concentration in precise micrometer figures.”

The fact that the Environment Ministry mentioned frying mackerel and barbecuing pork as some prime causes of fine dust rather than emphasizing larger contributors, such as steam power plants that use coal, further impaired the credibility of the government’s announcement.

“How can I fully rely on the data and announcement by a government which blames the food industry for air pollution, without even offering a tangible countermeasure?” Kim said.

Due partly to a distrust of government actions, many of her acquaintances -- a majority of them mothers of young children -- have recently joined online civic communities urging for fine dust solutions.

“The unsatisfactory counterplans, as well as the doubtful measurement methods, have pushed many anxious parents to take actions of their own.”
The rising level of uneasiness has also opened doors to a new market of high-tech air cleaning devices such as air purifiers, picnometers and even canned oxygen.

“The dilemma is that air purifiers, in order to sift out particles as minute as fine dust, require High-efficiency Particulate Arresting, or HEPA filters,” said Lee Hye-ryung, a 33-year-old employee working in a company specializing in genomic analysis.

“These expensive high-end filters are the kind used in chemical laboratories but the level of air pollution in modern urban life has become so serious that such special products have come to be in demand in everyday life.”

The appearance of premium products such as canned oxygen was also taken as a reflection of the new socio-environmental reality. The sales of these cans, containing oxygen enough for 80 seconds of inhaling and costing over 10,000 won per unit, has gone up 76 percent over the past three years, according to local retailers.

“With their limited range of information on this new air pollution threat, consumers easily rely on such products, in a self-comforting gesture of purchasing safety,” said Kim Hong-jung, a professor of sociology at Seoul National University.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)