The 'Beijing' of New Zealand - something to ponder

Many have asked us how we are finding Christchurch and how we have settled in, especially the kids. We always answer that we are loving it without a doubt, except for one thing and I, Blair was warned. (Martyn Fields you can say you told me so if you ever read this!) The air quality is awful. Especially on the eastern side of town. In fact this year it has been worse than last year or so I thought.

My suspicions were right. When I had a look on the ECAN website http://www.ecan.govt.nz/Our+Environment/Air/ my fears were correct! Woolston, which we are closest to in terms of where the measurements are taken, exceeded the limit of 50 microrams of particulate per cubic meter of air had 3 high readings up until now with the higest to date being 54ug/m3 air.

So far this year we have had 9 and the highest reading has been 155ug/m3 air. See graphs.
Yet the news papers will quote St. Albans where the number of highs for 2007 was 13 (Woolston 15) and claim this is the lowest since 1988. Maybe in St. Albans, but Woolston so far has exceeded last year by a factor of 3 in frequency of highs and more than 100ug/m3 of particulate matter for the single highest reading for 2008.