The Foreign Service Journal, October 2016

20 OCTOBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL S mog levels became so elevated in Beijing last December that the Chinese govern- ment issued a “red alert” two days in a row. That announcement forced the clo- sure of all schools and offices, and brought factories to a standstill, in an effort to reduce air pollution over the city. While air pollution has been slowly gaining media attention in the past few years, with stories about “hot spots” like Beijing and New Delhi raising concern, members of the U.S. Foreign Service and their families have been living and working in heavily pol- luted countries around the world for years. In fact, many FSOs and their families now spend much of their careers at posts with unsafe air. Despite recent media coverage of smog alerts and ris- ing pollution levels, there is surprisingly limited organized information available concerning what severe air pollution feels like on a daily basis and possible methods to prevent its effects. The purpose of this article is to explore air pollution in more detail and gather insights from FSOs and their family Many Foreign Service families spend a significant portion of their lives assigned to cities with unsafe air. What are the effects, and what can be done about it? I coughed for three long years in Beijing—until we left. Every day when my kids came in from playing, they stank, not in a sweaty, kids-playing way, but in a scary chemical way. I knew the pollution would be bad, but I never expected it to be that bad. Some days you couldn’t even see out the window. It was like the thickest fog you’ve ever seen, only gray and black and stinky. Some nights your eyes would start burning from the fumes of whatever was floating out there in the dark . —Donna Gorman, who served in Beijing from 2007 to 2010 COVER STORY PHOTO/GEMMADVORAK;BACKGROUND/ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/USER2547783C_812 THE AIRWE BREATHE: LIVINGWITH AIR POLLUTION BY N I COL E SCHAE F ER -MCDAN I E L