Beijing’s Smog Pollution Worsens: School Children Told to Stay Indoors

BEIJING _ Beijing’s worst pollution of the year forced some parents to keep their children home from school as municipal officials limited factory output in efforts to dispel a shroud of smog that covered the Chinese capital for the third day in a row.

Authorities in Beijing issued their highest-level smog warning in the city on Sunday.

“With this level of pollution, government should really consider halting all classes at middle and primary schools”, Ma Jun, the Beijing-based founder and director of Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, said by phone.

On November 30, President Xi Jinping delivered a key speech at the opening ceremony of Paris climate change conference.

On Monday, around 900 micrograms of PM 2.5 per cubic meter was recorded in the southern parts of the city. Most of China’s power is coal-generated.

The reading given by the U.S. embassy dwarfs the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization, which is just 25 micrograms per cubic meter.

The hazardous air underscores the challenge facing China’s government as it battles pollution caused by the coal-burning power industry, and will raise questions about its ability to clean up its economy at the talks in Paris.

Beijing has vowed to clean up its notoriously foul air and had been doing fairly well prior to the latest stretch of pollution, with generally cleaner air than in 2014. Meanwhile, local environmental watchdogs noted that the ongoing smog was the severest pollution seen so far this year in the capital city.

“And 90 per cent of these orders are sent to Beijing”. Yesterday, more than 200 expressways were closed and residents were advised to stay indoors as China grappled with the worst smog of the year. Several cities in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, also reported extremely polluted air.

Environmental group Greenpeace said on its official Wechat account that air samples showed that Beijing’s air contained heavy metals, including arsenic levels concentrated three times higher than national standards.

Thick smog that has lingered over much of north China since last week is expected to disperse on Tuesday night as a cold front arrives. Conditions were worsened by cold air that trapped pollutants near the ground, according to Zhang. Schools suspended outdoor activities and polluting factories were required to reduce production.