The view from Sharon Wang’s Beijing flat on October 14, 2014, and on Monday. Photos: Sharon Wang.
Source:
https://scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1885375/smog-soars-hazardous-levels-beijing China
Smog soars to hazardous levels in Beijing
Pollution in the capital expected to continue until Wednesday
Beijing was again engulfed in heavy smog on Monday, sending air pollution readings soaring ahead of President Xi Jinping’s address to the global climate change summit in Paris.
Both the US embassy in Beijing and the municipal government said the air pollution in the capital was at hazardous levels, with the main pollutants in both cases PM2.5 particles, very fine pollutants that are especially harmful to human health.
The municipal reading on Monday was roughly 40 per cent higher than that a day earlier.
Persistent pollution prompted the authorities to issue the year’s first orange pollution alert – the second highest in the four-tier system – on Sunday.
The situation was expected to be compounded with traffic authorities forecasting major congestion on the roads partly due to the weather.
As a result of the alert, the authorities ordered kindergartens and primary schools to stop all outdoor excises, and recommended that the elderly and the sick stay indoors. The smog was expected to continue until early Wednesday, the city’s environment bureau said.
Sharon Wang, who lives in the northern district of Wangjing, said the air smelled of smoke.
“I have barely been able to see the high-rise buildings about 400 metres away from my flat since last night,” Wang said.
Elaine Ho, a Hong Kong resident living in Beijing, said the smell of the air made her sick. “We are breathing cancer air,” she said.
Many residents took to social media to complain of sore throats and coughing fits.
Businessman Zou Yi takes a photo a day of the view from his Beijing flat. The photos in this compilation were taken in November. Photo: SCMP Pictures.
Pollution has been on the rise in the capital since Thursday, with concentrations of PM2.5 contaminants in downtown areas increasing nearly seven-fold to 198 micrograms per cubic metre on Friday morning. Since then, 23 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have had air pollution readings of at least 200, which were deemed as seriously polluted and hazardously polluted under the mainland system.
Readings above 101 are deemed unhealthy, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The environment ministry said “adverse weather conditions” were in part to blame for the pollution.
Inspection teams had been dispatched to the polluted areas, the ministry said.