Unhealthy Smog Hovers Over Beijing on Day 2 of Smog Alert

The levels of air pollution have not come down much despite allowing odd- and even-numbered cars on specific days which has eased pressure on roads.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing reported that the air quality index was 250 on Tuesday morning which is classified as “very unhealthy” and 10 times higher than the WHO’s recommended levels.

Beijing has a four-tier alert system for air pollution, but until Monday night the city government had never issued a red alert, which is saved for the worst of times. They have become so bad that, when worldwide summit meetings or important events are scheduled to take place in the city, leaders have to instruct local factories to shut down in order to clear the skies of pollution.

At Ele.me, an online food delivery company, anti-smog face masks passed spicy chicken burgers as the product requested most by customers in Beijing, said a company spokesman, Zou Yang.

Most of the pollution is blamed on coal-fired power plants, along with vehicle emissions and construction and factory work. Beijing authorities said at the time that the initial forecasts were for less time so no alert was called for, but critics maintained they were seeking to avoid the toughest restrictions for political reasons.

Currently, weather conditions of some areas in North China tend to be steady and regional air pollution has appeared.

As the weather has added to the worsening pollution levels in the capital city of Beijing, it has also clearly brought out the fact that China has progressed economically but at the cost of high environmental damage.

The ministry said this was part of their annual campaign to minimize vehicle exhaust and reduce the amount of smog which has degraded air quality in China’s major cities.

Those who stayed in Beijing also bought air purifying machines, an increasingly common household necessity in a city that even on normal days is one of the world’s most polluted. So he spent 100 days walking the streets of Beijing, towing his vacuum, sucking up the pollution Beijingers breathe in.

Chinese President Xi Jinping did not mention the severity of the pollution when he spoke at the United Nations climate summit the last day of November. Li Ning, a 33-year-old IT worker, said his child was being looked after by grandparents. He was wearing a children’s mask, his face turning red as he tried to suppress his fits.

“Our environmental engineers are working on a daily basis to tackle Beijing’s complex and challenging pollution problem and protect the health of citizens”, said Dawei Zhang, Director of Beijing’s Environmental Monitoring Center, a department of the BEPB.

Meanwhile, a new IBM agreement with the Delhi Dialogue Commission will attempt to map the correlations between traffic patterns and air pollution in the city and explore scenario modeling to support more informed decision-making by the government. Would he still cough nonstop?

“Right now, there’s an enormous health hazard”, says Dr. Norman Edelman, a senior scientific advisor to the American Lung Association. “Without health, the convenience and facilities are just nothing”.