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Website under maintenance / Online shop still accessible
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Wednesday, 09 January 2013,
Written by Julien
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The website back-office is experiencing some issues and we currently cannot add content on the website. We are working on it and hope to be able to offer a new version soon.
The good news is that the online shop is still working. In addition, the prices have even dropped further and we received a new excitiing new product: the Sporsta mask with Techno filter.
Thank you for your understanding.
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Respro Masks price cut! Breathing good air is now cheaper!
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Tuesday, 31 August 2010,
Written by Julien
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Because air pollution levels stay high in China, we pursue our efforts to make clean air accessible to more and more people. With increasing volumes of Respro anti-pollution masks sold every day in China we have been able to lower our costs. We are proud to announce a major price cut on Respro Masks and Filters in China by up to 20%.
Our most popular product, the Respro Techno Mask is now only RMB399, below the RMB400 thresold, and Respro Sportsta Mask is down to RMB389. Metro Mask and Bandit Scarf are even more accessible from RMB279.
In addition, to help you reduce the opertating costs of your Respro mask, we now propose sepcial offers:
- Buy 1 Techno Filter Pack with your Techno Mask , the Techno Filter Pack is only RMB169 (instead of RMB249).
- Buy 1 Sportsta Filter Pack with your Sportsta Mask , the Sportsta Filter Pack is only RMB149 (instead of RMB169).
- Buy 2 Techno Filter Packs , each Techno Filter Pack is only RMB199.5 (instead of RMB249).
All our products are still available in Beijing, in Shanghai, in Guangzhou and all over China, through our distributors and this website (link to the catalogue ).
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Urban liveability and the Bicycle
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Friday, 25 June 2010,
Written by Julien
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Last Saturday I attended a conference by Shannon Bufton on "Urban Liveability and the Bicycle" . His main argument is that when city planning is focused towards car usage it has a negative impact on liveability. Too many cars in a city create traffic congestion, increase accident rates for cyclists and pedestrians, generate sound and air pollution... In one sentence, a car-friendly city is a people-unfriendly city.
There are now around 4 million cars in Beijing. It is hard to really realize what it means so Shannon Bufton gave a very striking comparison: if you put all those cars next to each other, it would take all the space within second ring road. So to be able to park all the cars Beijing has, one would have to obliterate all historical building in Beijing into an immense parking lot: the Forbidden City, TianAnMen square, Temple of Heaven, all the hutongs would have to be destroyed in order to fit so many cars.
Developping bike usage and public transit networks would reduce the space required by cars. How could all this space be better used to create a better city (and of course a better life :)?
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Facemasks have the potential to prevent cardiovascular events
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Monday, 24 August 2009,
Written by Julien
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As the concentration of fine particles is quite high in Beijing, it is a good place to assess the efficiency of facemasks . A team from the Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences of Edinburgh University just published a scientific study on this topic . Their findings are quite interesting as they show some measurable improvements linked with wearing a mask.
Basically, 15 healthy volunteers were asked to walk on a predefined city centre route in Beijing in the presence and absence of a highly efficient facemask. Personal exposure to ambient air pollution and exercise was assessed continuously using portable real-time monitors and global positional system tracking respectively. Cardiovascular effects were assessed by continuous electrocardiographic and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
The conclusion of their study is straightforward:
"Wearing a facemask appears to abrogate the adverse effects of air pollution on blood pressure and heart rate variability. This simple intervention has the potential to protect susceptible individuals and prevent cardiovascular events in cities with high concentrations of ambient air pollution."
The mask tested was a dust respirator complying to FFP1 European standard and of course not a traditional Beijing Opera facemask!
Many thanks to Vance, a fellow blogger on pollution in Beijing, who sent me the link to this report. His great blog is available again in China at the following address: www.livefrombeijing.com
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Tuesday, 28 April 2009,
Written by Julien
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Last Wednesday was Earth Day. I went to the BBQ organized by Greening the Beige . After Earth Hour at the end of March, it was another occasion to talk about environment. It is really nice to talk but I have the feeling that those awareness rising initiatives do not have big impact in the short term.
Switching from electricity to candles for an hour is quite debatable from a pure environmental point of view (candles are much less efficient than bulbs!) and it might also give a wrong message: "Switch off the lights for one hour and forget about environment until next year"! I found this great article from The Australian that sums it up well. What stated there is so true: "Unfortunately, this event - as with many public proposals on climate change - is an entirely symbolic gesture that creates the mistaken impression that there are easy, quick fixes to climate change."
Earth Day is a bit better as the message tends to be less simplistic, but still: it is quite easy to change your way of life for a single day. You can wait one day to wash your clothes, you can work one day from home to avoid using cab, you can make the extra effort to close the tap while brushing your teeth on that day... but would you be able to keep it up longer?
We have to change our way of life on the long term to really reduce our impact on the environment. So what about creating an Earth Week? It could be great fun and really have a positive impact.
We could have something like:
- You choose one area where you think you could easily reduce your impact on environment for example transportation or electricity consumption or water consumption.
- For two weeks before the Earth Week, you monitor your usage on this area (eg check the electricity or water meters or collect your taxi/gas bills) to know how much you really use.
- You commit on a change you are willing to make (eg: cutting your cab/car usage by half, lower your water consumption by 20%).
- During Earth Week you stick to this commitment.
- At the end of the week, you can decide to stick to this commitment for the rest of the year!
I would love to do that. What about you?
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Speech tonight at Cheung Kong GSB
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Monday, 27 April 2009,
Written by Julien
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Just to let you know, I'll be speaking tonight at a panel organized at the Cheung Kong GSB in Beijing. The topic of the panel is:
"Net Capitalists : Making Money Online - A Panel Discussion
Three Beijing-based professionals talk about their entrepreneurial
experiences using the web to make profit and give you tips on starting
out on your own commercial online adventure."
The panel is part of the Cheung Kong Open Lecture Series. It starts at 7pm, in Oriental Plaza E3, 12th floor (subway Dongdan on line 1 and line 5). Free.
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Friday, 03 April 2009,
Written by Julien
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In addition to our online catalogue, the products will be more and more available in regular shops.
For now, you can find some Respro masks in the following stores:
Beijing, Dongcheng - Lama Temple: Natooke is foreign owned and managed with fluent English, Chinese, German, Italian and French staff. Natooke is the only fixed-gear bike and juggling store in China.
Beijing, CBD and Shunyi: World Health Store is foreign owned and managed with fluent English & Chinese staff. Also available in store is the biggest array of imported health, vitamins, sports supplements in all of China.
Beijing, Haidian district: Merida Bicycle shop. Chinese service only.
Click here to find how to get to these stores .
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Wednesday, 01 April 2009,
Written by Julien
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There has been a long time since I last blogged. The reason is not that I am not interested about environment anymore (I have actually been answering to comments and to requests for Respro masks since September), I have just been busy with other things. In the meantime, I have been interested, annoyed, touched by many topics regarding environment. I'll try to catch up in the coming weeks!
Here are few of the things I was busy with over the last few months:
- Establishing a sustainable business in China: I am commited to bring solutions against pollution to individuals. I did it through this blog since 2006, but to be able to do it on a sustainable way, I wanted to be able to live from it. I registered a proper company in China (it's not so easy, believe me!) and I now have a fully fledged import-export WFOE. I am able to bring more ideas and products to the market!
- Linking French companies. I care for the environment but I also care for my community, French companies in China. I've worked a lot on that in the last 2 years and in January, we hold a great Forum to help French companies working together. Big Challenge, big achievement: Forum Travailler Ensemble (fr) .
- Representing French companies: to continue my involvement with French business community, I am now member of the Board of the French Chamber in China. It's a great place to bring positive change!
With all these commitments, I'll definitely stay a few more years in Beijing, despite the pollution ;) Keep in touch!
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