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


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


3 Which one below is aromatic pollution most likely to be found in daily life?
A. PM2.5
B. water sample from WEIMING Lake
C. paint
D. newspaper


4 Which mothed is most commonly used in detecting aromatic compounds?
A. mass spectrometer
B. gas chromatography
C. biosensor
D. smelling


5 Do you pay attention to the progress in science and technology and policy formulation of aromatic compounds?
A. very concerned
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 aromatic compounds’ definition, source, existence, detection methods and the public’s position about it. The sample population is mainly made up of 100 visitors in Beijing. So their age and 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, 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 in 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 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 is equal to any air pollution need to be corrected.

Question 4
This question can’t be taken as a common sense,since it is too difficult for everyday life. 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 people are concerned about aromatic pollution to some extent. We believe that these pollutions will draw the public’s more and more attention in the future.

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

The result of this survey shows that the majority of the public have common sense about aromatic pollution. Yet, people still lack knowledge about its producing and polluting method. In the past decade, there was a controversy whenever it comes to 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 will cause great damage to the living environment. With stricter regulation by the government and an increase knowledge of aromatic pollution among the public, we believe PX project can exist in harmony with local residents. So, it’s still vital to enrich knowledge about aromatic pollution.