Whether to buy an air purifier or not to buy one that is the question.

A friend told me that the latest air purifiers are able to not only effectively remove PM2.5 pollutants, they also effectively filter "micro-dust" pollutants with even smaller particle diameters. So he encouraged me to get one for my home to ensure the air within is clean.

A while ago, a friend of mine bought me a mask from Seven-Eleven, which has a detachable filter inside it to prevent the floating particles larger than PM 2.5 from entering one's lungs while one breathes.

Both purifiers and masks are selling well, thanks to the growing number of days with increasingly heavy smog in many parts of the country, along with water purifiers that clean tap water by filtering it.

For the producers of these products, the country's pollution means a bonanza.

For them, the heavier the pollution is, the more people will buy air purifiers, masks and water filters, thus the more profits for them.

Economically, not only have the industries that have discharged the pollutants contributed to the country's gross domestic product they have also given birth to another sector of industry, which makes its own contribution to GDP growth.

Despite the aversion the majority of residents have to the polluting industries, their double contributions to the GDP, both direct and indirect, is an undeniable fact. Unfortunately, the direct contribution results in the pollution they discharged.

So if economic growth is judged only by how many jobs it has created and to what degree it has expanded consumption, the polluting industries can be said to have greatly promoted the growth of the economy. And this conclusion can be supported by the rising sales of both products as well as the increasing number of jobs the manufacturing of air purifiers and face masks create.