Gangnam District Office deals with fine dust pollution underground

A resident walks along Cheongdam Subway Station's fine dust free zone. The 650-meter-long pedestrian path has low fine dust levels at all times./ Korea Times photo by Kim Se-jeong

By Kim Se-jeong

Subway stations typically suffer from air pollution issues. Train operation generates fine dust and ventilation systems don't fully filter toxic airborne particles.

Yet, Cheongdam Subway Station in southern Seoul has a 650-meter-long pedestrian path with quality.

The fine dust free zone consists of hundreds of potted plants and 72 air purifiers and five air handling units with cleaning filters.

The fine dust free zone also has a tiny garden. Courtesy of Gangnam District Office

"Normally, subway stations are notorious for bad air quality," Cho Jang-won from the Apartment Housing Division at Gangnam District Office said. "But we were able to transform a part of the subway station that had been neglected into an attractive spot where people like to come and spend time."

Entering the station, people walk into a stretch of a long passageways whose walls are adorned with green plants, small benches, artificial waterfalls and a garden. Among the plants are broadleaf lady palm, Indian rubber trees, Boston ferns, spathiphyllum and ficus alii that assist in improving air quality. The plants are watered via an automatic sprinkler system.

Also one of the walls has an electronic board that displays data on fine dust levels inside the zone and outside the station and the difference is quite stark ― on Monday, the concentration inside was eight micrograms per cubic meter while outside it was 62.

The elderly population are among those who welcome the zone the most.

"This is a great place to walk. I used to live in Cheongdam for more than 40 years. Two months ago, I moved to Godeok and still come here to walk from time to time," a 75-year Seoul resident said. She takes the subway to Cheongdam where she goes walking. "Before, this place was empty and ugly-looking, but it is pleasant to walk here now with quality air."

This makes the district office officials who had them in mind when they came up with the idea happy.

"It's great to hear that the zone serves the elderly population," Cho said. "They' need a place to exercise and outdoor activities are now restricted greatly by air pollution. The elderly population is considerably high in the district and we thought of serving them."

The idea of a fine dust free zone was born of desperation for Gangnam which sees fine dust levels quite high compared to that of other districts in Seoul. Experts say the district's hilly geography contributes to air stagnation.

"We were brainstorming what to do to combat bad air quality," Cho said. Cheongdam station was selected because it has a considerably long straight pedestrian pathway and more than 43,000 passengers use it per day.

A fine dust free booth at a bus stop outside Galleria department store/ Courtesy of Gangnam District Office

The zone is among many creative ideas devised to bring quality air to district residents. The district office installed fine dust free booths at two bus stations in which people can avoid toxic air while waiting for their trains.

Due to their popularity, the district office is planning to open more such booths within its district this year.

A device showing air quality at Cheongdam Elementary School / Courtesy of Gangnam District Office

The office also installed a traffic light-like device that shows air quality, at all 29 local elementary schools ― and it installed similar devices at 144 daycare centers. It is planning to install 81 additional device at elderly care facilities and kindergarten

"It is a great education tool for my children," said Han Seung-hyeon, a district office official with two children.

The initiatives gained followers as other district offices in Seoul reached out to benchmark the idea.

Fine dust is a challenging issue facing Seoul, and Korea at large.

Fine dust particles are believed to cause cancer and other illnesses if people are exposed to them for a long period of time. According to surveys, Seoul is one of the most polluted cities in the world.

When it comes to identifying the sources of the hazardous fine particulate matter, coal power plants and factories concentrated around Korea's west coast are considered a massive contributor as well as a high number of vehicles ― combining to produce almost 60 percent of the total fine dust. Some argue China is to blame ― data has shown almost 40 percent comes from the neighboring country ― but the experts growingly argue Korea needs to keep pollutants from domestic sources under control as a first line of defense before blaming China.

The worsening fine dust issue has repeatedly raised alerts for Korea in recent years.

In 2019, Korea passed a special law giving the central government the authority to issue an emergency fine dust alert on days with high fine dust levels, requiring vehicles with high carbon emission levels to stay off the roads.

The government is pushing operators of power plants, oil refineries, and cement factories, which have high fine dust emission levels, to comply with toughened air pollution regulations. For coal-powered power generation plants, the incumbent government shut them down temporarily and has longer term plans to shut some down, replacing them with renewable energy sources.

Vehicles are also believed to be a big contributor to fine dust and the city government of Seoul ― which has 3.12 million registered vehicles ― is acting to tackle the problem by toughening emissions regulations for vehicles.

Since 2003, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has been subsidizing vehicles with poor emissions performances to fit additional emissions reduction devices and issuing 200,000 won fines to emissions violators.

The city is also now banning these vehicles from entering the city's old downtown, as defined by the four traditional gates, when fine dust is heavy, and fines violators of the ban.

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