No Sh*t, Sherlock: Officials Wasting Anti-Pollution Funds and Smog Will Wreck Your Heart

In news that will shock basically no one, officials in several cities in China have been caught embezzling funds earmarked for pollution control – though luckily none in our fair city of Beijing.

CRI reports that USD 3.5 billion of the money alloted to fight pollution has been spend on such time-honored pollution control activities such as office building renovations, entertaining guests, and buying contraptions that don't help control pollution.

Beijing and nearby Tianjin are among those investigated, along with several counties in Anhui and other locales. Economist Zhang Lianqi called it a violation of budget laws, while the Ministry of Finance vowed to recoup the embezzled funds.

RELATED: Your Complete Guide to Pollution in Beijing

Also causing a stink among those of us that like fresh air is the possiblity that smog will be formally categorized as a meteorological disaster. Why the big stink? Opponents don't want to pass smog off as an unavoidable consequence of nature, like a snowstorm or a hurricane, for fear that polluters will feel absolved of responsibility and the public will be misled more than they already are.

“Activists fear could mean neither emitters nor regulators will end up taking responsibility for what is in the end a mostly man-made problem,” Sixth Tone quoted Greenpeace spokesperson Dong Liansai as saying.

Finally, because bad news comes in threes, let's remind everyone that it's not just your lungs that are at risk from bad air, but your heart as well.

Vancouver's Simon Fraser University recently posted a video that details why lung health shouldn’t be our sole concern when it comes to smog. With its colourful (albeit simplistic to the point of being retro) 3D graphics, the video shows viewers how air pollution is also a heart health hazard. 

Watch the video below (or click here if you're unable to see it):

One segment shows how in Vancouver – which has a miniscule average PM2.5 concentration of 7 – two out of every hundred deaths from heart disease are linked to pollution. London’s PM2.5 average of 29 leads to 16 out of 100 deaths heart disease deaths, While Beijing’s is a far higher 24 out of 100, thanks to its average PM2.5 concentration of 56.

The video also shows how the deep impact of inhaled pollution particles not only damages the lungs but also leads to ischemic heart disease, a condition in which ”your heart literally suffocates” thanks to inflammation from pollutants.

Enjoy your breathing on this relatively low pollution day, people.

Photos: marketplace.org