Smog chokes Chinese cities, grounding flights, closing roads
ASSOCIATED PRESS
People ride bicycles and electric bikes crossing a road in Beijing as the capital of China is shrouded by heavy smog on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. Thick, gray smog fell over Beijing on Tuesday, choking China’s capital in a haze that spurred authorities to cancel flights and close some highways in emergency measures to cut down on air pollution.
BEIJING >> Thick, gray smog fell over Beijing on Tuesday, choking China’s capital in a haze that spurred authorities to cancel flights and close some highways in emergency measures to cut down on air pollution.
Beijing and much of industrial northern China are in the midst of a “red alert,” the highest level in China’s four-tiered pollution warning system. The alert has affected 460 million people, according to Greenpeace East Asia, which calculated that about 200 million people were living in areas that had experienced levels of air pollution more than 10 times above the guideline set by the World Health Organization.
Members of the public closely watch levels of PM2.5, particles measuring 2.5 microns across that are easily inhaled and damage lung tissue. The World Health Organization designates the safe level for the tiny, poisonous particles at 25 micrograms per cubic meter. On Tuesday morning, the PM2.5 reading in Beijing climbed above 300. In many northern Chinese cities, the reading has exceeded 500 micrograms per cubic meter.
State media reported that 169 flights have been canceled at Beijing Capital International Airport, where visibility fell at one point to 300 meters (984 feet). Sections of Beijing’s sixth ring road, the outermost highway encircling the city of more than 20 million people, were shut down in a bid to keep cars off the roads.
Authorities have even removed charcoal grills from restaurants and banned spray painting in parts of the city, state media reported.
Adding to a sense of crisis, local news in recent days reported that hospitals were encountering a boom in cases of children with respiratory problems and preparing teams of doctors to handle the surge of pollution-related cases. Photos showed waiting rooms crowded with parents carrying youngsters wearing face masks.
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Outside the Capital Pediatrics Institute on Tuesday, parents voiced frustration about the toxic air for throat infections and the flu.
“He is coughing and breathing short, and always feeling sputum in his throat,” said Du Renxin, an IT worker, who was with his 2-year-old, who has had to make monthly visits to the doctor.
China has long faced some of the worst air pollution in the world, blamed on its reliance of coal for energy and factory production, as well as a surplus of older, less efficient cars on its roads. Beijing and other cities have tried to improve air quality by switching power plants from coal to natural gas and rolling out fleets of electric buses and taxis.
But despite its public commitment to reduce carbon emissions, China remains the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, with plans to build new factories and increase production. Government officials, facing rising energy prices earlier this year, lifted caps on production days for many mines.
Since the red alert went into effect, more than 700 companies stopped production in Beijing and traffic police were restricting drivers by monitoring their license plate numbers. Dozens of cities closed schools and took other emergency measures.
“The smog has serious repercussions on the lungs and the respiratory system, and it also influences the health of future generations, so under a red alert, it is safer to stay at home rather than go to school,” Li Jingren, a 15-year-old high school student in Beijing, said Monday.
In nearby Tianjin, authorities canceled 350 flights and closed all highways in the municipality. Public transportation services were increased as restrictions on cars were imposed.
Authorities in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, ordered coal and cement plants to temporarily shut down or reduce production.
The alert is expected to end Wednesday.
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Associated Press researcher Liu Zheng contributed to this report.
18 responses to “Smog chokes Chinese cities, grounding flights, closing roads”
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I hope the skies over Beijing remain like this forever. The Chicoms deserve it.
Let them get choked! Within my lifetime these Irresponsible Overpopulaterors have more than tripled their miserable population.
This is what happens when the Chinese don’t care about the environment. How many citizens go through their daily lives wearing a mask that won’t help. Maybe a gas mask.
agree..China’s much-vaunted growth has had a real cost that they have not faced up top. Their quality of life is far less than America’s.
1,3 billions! There is an unspeakable insanity in their numbers!
Trump is going to gut the Environmental Protection Agency, and let the fossil fuel industry sell more oil and gas, to make huge profits at the expense of global air and water pollution, and the health of everyone. the air of Beijing, Delhi, Bombay, Mexico City are very thick with air pollution. In fact a huge portion of China and India are so polluted, that when I visited, I could not believe hazy and smoked filled the smog was. I could not get out of there fast enough. The trump administration will be bringing these environmental and climate changing conditions to you in the near future.
I heard they are going to build many more coal burning electric plants which is crazy given what is going on. They are going to poison themselves out of existence. The food supply is often tainted there too. Had a friend working there for years who had to return to the US because of poisoning in her food by insecticides. Corruption knows no bounds there involving both the government and the public, so the odds of effective cleanup is nil. When I was in Japan, there was constant haze/smog/dust, unlike before, which I surmise is now blowing over from China across the Japan Sea, polluting there and it must infuriate the Japanese knowing the probable source.
Send Al Gore to China. If the People of China had enough of the smog their Gov. can’t remedy, maybe Al becomes the next President of the Chinese Republic. Where’s the enviromentalist Libertards on this?
I love your word invention: Libertards!
That slur’s been around since 2008 at least. You really need to get out of your mom’s basement more.
Braddah’s basement is overcrowded due to overpopulation.
Greedy Chinese trying to take other peoples land and oceans because they ruined their own.
How are they greedy? They just want clean air. Can you blame them? The Chinese govt is at fault – not the Chinese citizens. Since your entire life is spent here on this forum, you wouldn’t know that Chinese citizens have zero control or say in what their government does. If you actually visited China and spoke to the local Chinese people, you would know that they are ALL very disgusted how the government is poisoning their own people.
This is what Drumpf’s energy policies will do to the USA.
I can’t wait for our new supreme leader to bring us back to the dark ages so I can pillage by his side. You’ll be wearing your gas mask while drinking your latte outside of Starbucks, while he and I united with Vlad the impaler crush all enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentation of their women. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Latenight, very colorful description of what’s coming
Aren’t we lucky we live here?
Look at the bright side , their military are greater and far better than most of the countries in the world, but they will succumb to their own disasterous pollution and will be useless to protect their country or invade others! Make America safe at the expenses of China’s productivities!