Air pollution in Taiwan
Air pollution in Taiwan is mostly derived from sources of domestic combustion, primarily the burning of fossil fuels. Taiwan's topography has been noted to be a contributing factor to its air pollution problem, leading to poor dispersal and trapping pollutants. Taipei, Taiwan's capital and largest city for example, is surrounded by mountains, and other industrial centers along the northern and western coasts of Taiwan are surrounded by high mountains. Types of pollutants PM10 In March 2014, Taiwanese legislators and the Taiwan Healthy Air Action Alliance claimed, based on reports by the World Health Organization, that the air quality in Taiwan was the worst out of the Four Asian Tigers. Attention was mainly drawn to the annual mean PM10 level of Taiwan's air (54 micrograms per cubic meter). This annual mean of Taipei (47.1 micrograms per cubic meter), made the city rank 1,089 out of 1,600 when compared to the air quality of other cities around the world. Based on 2004 data by Taiwan's Department of Environmental Protection, the annual mean PM10 level for Taiwan had, for the last decade, been worse than the European Union limit value (40 micrograms per cubic meter) every year. Fugitive dust In the winter of