March Brought Record Fine Dust Pollution to Seoul

The month of March brought the worst fine dust pollution on record to Seoul.

The average ultrafine dust or PM2.5 concentration was 44 ㎍/㎥, the highest since measurements began in 2015, and up 10 ㎍/㎥ from March 2018.

It was the worst month for many other cities too, including Incheon with 40 ㎍/㎥, Daejeon with 39 ㎍/㎥, Gwangju with 38 ㎍/㎥, and Daegu with 32 ㎍/㎥.

March is usually the worst month of the year as coal-fired heating continues in parts of China and westerly winds blow the emissions over to Korea. It was the first week of March that brought the monthly average to record levels.

Jang Im-suk at the National Institute of Environmental Research said, "We had an influx of highly concentrated ultrafine dust from abroad on three occasions in early March, and then the air stagnated as Korea came under a high atmospheric pressure belt."

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