People in Taiwan can expect bad air quality nationwide today and tomorrow as the strong northeast monsoon brings sand and other air pollutants from northern China, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
Chang Shun-chin (張順欽), a senior specialist at the EPA’s department of environmental monitoring and information management, said that the density of floating particulates in the air could surge to between 150 and 250 micrograms per cubic meter.
The amount of floating particulate matter that normally exists in the air without interfering with human activities differs from region to region, he said.
Generally speaking it is 50 micrograms per cubic meter in the north, 60 in the central areas and 70 in the south, he added.
“When the north wind is strong enough in the winter, it brings sand from Inner Mongolia, along with the air pollutants from industrial zones in Chinese coastal areas, to Taiwan,” Chang said.
The EPA also advised the public to limit outdoor activities and take precautionary measures to prevent respiratory difficulties.
According to the Central Weather Bureau, the northeast monsoon that arrived last night could potentially reduce the temperature in the northern and northeastern region as well as in coastal areas to between 15oC and 16.8oC today.
Bureau forecaster Lee Hsiang-yuan (李湘源) said that the influence of the northeast monsoon is expected to continue until tomorrow, bringing cold and dry air to the nation. People are likely to notice a big difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures, he said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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