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 and detection methods of aromatic pollutants as well as the public attitude to it. The sample population is mainly made up of 100 visitors in Beijing from various classes which could roughly represent the public attitude in China.

Question 1
This question is about the definition of aromatic compounds. More than half of the sample population gave the correct answer, 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 many people know little about aromatic compounds.

Question 2
This question is about the source of aromatic pollutants. 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 the right answer, A.Petroleum refining.

Question 3
The third question is about aromatic pollutants in daily life. The reason why most people chose the correct answer, C.Paint, might be the noticeable smell of paint.
A.PM2.5 refers to particles in air pollution whose diameters are smaller than 2.5 micrometers. Since the beginning of 2013, it has become a public concern in China. However, the degree of PM2.5 has little to do with aromatic pollution. The inaccurate idea of PM2.5 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.