For the 4th day in a row, the red alert was maintained in Beijing and in 23 cities located in northern China. The fine particle rate is much denser than the WHO standard.
Since last Friday, the Chinese have been suffocating. The Middle Empire is totally blocked because of a thick toxic fog that covers nearly a tenth of the country. According to the Beijing meteorological services, the peak of pollution could be reached on Monday. In an attempt to protect the population, the country’s authorities are stepping up measures.
Among the most draconian, we note the alternating circulation, the stopping of construction work, the suspension of classes in nursery and primary schools, the reduction or even the cessation of production in factories. A real scourge that is breaking records.
Figures 8 times higher than the WHO standard
The rate of fine microparticles (less than 2.5 microns) per cubic meter of air thus evolved around 200, according to figures provided by the United States Embassy in Beijing. This figure is eight times higher than the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). But Beijing is not the only city affected by this smog of pollution. In Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, the level of fine particulate matter PM2.5 has reached 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter, the New China Agency reported on Monday.
Same cloud in Tianjin (northeast of the country), where the authorities nailed to the ground on Monday, for the second day in a row, several dozen airliners and closed all the expressways of this port city, the fourth in China in number of inhabitants (after Shanghai, Beijing and Canton). In all, 23 cities in the north of the country have issued a red alert and many hospitals are already overloaded.
Health consequences
The first consequences on the health of citizens are felt. “When I went out yesterday, I didn’t put on a mask and my throat really hurt, my head was spinning. I had trouble breathing through my nose, ”testified Chen Xiaochong, manager of a hotel in the capital. “This pollution is really dangerous for people, it is important to protect the environment,” he told Reuters news agency. Fortunately, the arrival of a cold front Wednesday evening should drive away this thick brownish fog.
As a reminder, pollution alerts are becoming more and more frequent in the industrial heart of northeast China, especially in winter, when demand for energy rises, largely satisfied by coal. Pollution costs China the equivalent of 6% of its GDP each year, according to the World Bank.
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