1 What are Aromatic Compounds?
A. fragrant compounds
B. benzene series compounds
C. compounds with heavy metal ion
D. halogenic compounds


2 Which of the following is the LEAST likely source of aromatic pollution?
A. petroleum refining
B. furniture
C. printworks
D. perfume


3 Which of the following is most likely to consist of aromatic pollutants?
A. PM2.5
B. water sample from WEIMING Lake
C. paint
D. newspaper


4 Which method is most commonly used in aromatic compound detection?
A. mass spectrometer
B. gas chromatography
C. biosensor
D. smelling


5 Are you concerned about the aromatic pollution in China.
A. Yes
B. only concerned about pollution from indoor decoration
C. only heard of PX project
D. not at all


6 What do you think of biological prevention?
A. Totally for it
B. Totally against it
C. Acceptable
D. No idea

Here are the analyses of the statistics.
The questionnaire we designed is mainly about the definition, source, existence, detection methods of aromatic compounds and the public’s knowledge of it. The sample population is mainly made up of 100 visitors from Beijing, so their ages and the degree of education resembles the average level of the nation in a certain degree.

Question 1
This question is about the definition of aromatic compounds. More than half of the sample population gave the correct answer, which is B.benzene series compounds. Still, one third chose the typical wrong answer, A.fragrant compounds. The most likely explanation was that AROMATIC literally means FRAGRANT in Chinese. This result shows that actually many people know little about aromatic compounds.

Question 2
This one is about the source of aromatic compounds. As we can see in Q1, many people consider aromatic compounds as fragrant compounds. Thus, D.perfume production becomes the most distracting option. One quarter of them chose A.petroleum refining, which is actually the most common source of aromatic pollution. This shows the public’s ignorance of aromatic compounds.

Question 3
The third one is about aromatic compounds in daily life. Most people chose C.paint , which is the correct answer. Paint releases pungent odor. It’s not so hard to notice.
PM2.5 refers to particles whose diameters smaller than 2.5 micrometers. Since the beginning of 2013, it has come to attract attention around the country. PM2.5 represents air pollution in the public's eyes. However, the degree of PM2.5 scarcely has anything to do with aromatic pollution. The inaccurate idea that PM2.5 means any kinds of air pollution needs to be corrected.

Question 4
This question can’t be taken as a common sense,there it is not easy for an average person to answer. The most common detection methods are GC/MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) and SERS (surface-enhanced raman spectrometry). GC/MS involves both gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, which means option A and B can both be considered as correct answers. It appears that most people know biosensor is not a common method in aromatic compounds detection. It shows that our work, A Comprehensive Biosensor Toolkit to Profile Aromatics in the Environment, is quite promising.

Question 5
The fifth and sixth questions are both subjective. More than half of the people are concerned about aromatic pollution to some extent. We believe that these pollutions will draw more and more of the public’s attention in the future.

Question 6
Most people think biological prevention is acceptable and are even totally for it. Meanwhile, biological prevention and the monitoring of aromatic compounds are what we’ve been working on. This indicates that people are optimistic about that.

The results of this survey shows that the majority of the public has common sense when it comes to aromatic pollution. However, people still lack knowledge about methods of its production and pollution. In the past decade, there was a debate on the PX(p-Xylene) project in China. Hundreds of people took to the streets in Kunming, Xiamen and other cities to protest the project, firmly believing that the production of PX would cause great damage to the environment. With stricter regulation by the government and an increasing knowledge of aromatic pollution amongst the public, we believe PX project can exist in harmony with local residents. Hence, it is of utmost importance to expand public knowledge on aromatic pollution.