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![PM 2.5, which refers to particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, leads to hazardous smog that is a major cause of asthma and respiratory diseases, experts say [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/pollution.jpg)
PM 2.5, which refers to particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, leads to hazardous smog that is a major cause of asthma and respiratory diseases, experts say [Xinhua]
This is the first time the capital has issued the red alert, which will last from 7:00 a.m. Tuesday to 12:00 p.m. Thursday.
Beijing and broad swaths of its northern provinces have spent the past week blanketed in a dense smog that is not expected to abate until Thursday.
Beijing’s concentration of PM 2.5 particles – those small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream – is alarming.
According to the city’s emergency management officials, during a red alert, schools are advised to suspend classes, outdoor operations of construction sites are banned and some industrial plants are required to limit or stop production.
Car use will be limited as cars are allowed on the roads on alternate days depending on the odd or even numbers of their license plates. In addition, 30 per cent of government cars will be banned from streets on an odd/even basis.
According to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center, heavy air pollution will linger until Thursday. It is expected to disperse Thursday afternoon as a cold front arrives.
This is the first time Beijing has issued a red alert for smog since 2013 when Beijing adopted an emergency response program for air pollution.
Four-tier alerts–blue, yellow, orange and red–will be issued on “heavy pollution” days. Red alert, the highest, will be issued for heavy pollution that is expected to last more than three days.
Pollution has triggered increasing unease in China, where smog blankets many major cities, including Beijing, home to 21 million people.
The government has launched a war on pollution, vowing to abandon a decades-old economic model of growth at all costs that has damaged China’s water, air and soil.
The average density of PM 2.5 particle pollution in Beijing stands at 85.9 micrograms per cubic meter, or 1.45 times more than the national standard, the official Xinhua news agency reported an environmental watchdog as saying.
The World Health Organisation recommends a safe level of 25.
TBP and Agencies
