Beijing Issues First Ever “Red Alert” Over Extreme Smog

Counts of PM2.5 – harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs – reached well over 600 micrograms per cubic metre last week, according to the USA embassy, which issues independent readings, and were regularly above 300 in recent days.

Beijing’s vehicle restrictions of odd and even number plates will last until noon on Thursday.

BYD, backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is also playing off the smog in its advertising.

You have to do whatever you can to protect yourself.

With cities that suffered more serious smog recording more searches for sportswear, it is suggested that this is because people are preparing to exercise once the air quality improves.

“I still need to work”, he said, but “I feel relieved about the schools’ cancellation of classes, because my daughter can stay at home and I don’t need to worry about her breathing bad air”. But environmentalists said that without a coordinated strategy to tackle pollution across the entire region, the red alert measures in Beijing would not do much to stem the toxic fumes.

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.

“It’s taken just a few short years to go from repudiating PM2.5 [data] to today issuing a red alert – this is a near-revolutionary change”.

“At this level of response, schools and kindergartens can remain open, meaning that children are risking their health in order to attend class and vehicle emissions haven’t been restricted at all”, Greenpeace said. The red alert is due to end tomorrow.

Beijing had imposed the red-alert – the highest on a four-color scale, following a forecast of high pollution for three consecutive days.

Wang, who runs a Beijing food wholesale business, said the driving restrictions were yet another reason to think electric, noting the attraction also of government subsidies that would save him around 100,000 yuan ($15,560) on a new electric model. That has reduced traffic volume by half since Tuesday. The policies mean, too, that the sources of the pollution that afflict Beijing are not really being addressed by this city’s red alert regulations: Most of the pollution comes from coal-burning factories in Hebei, Henan and other provinces, not from Beijing itself.

A man walks along an overpass amid heavy air pollution in Beijing on December 8, 2015.