Yet her 7-year-old son’s public primary school, Yunhe Elementary, has not installed any air purifiers – humming, boxy machines common in the city’s expensive private schools – leaving its students no choice but to breathe eye-watering toxic air.
Air pollution has reached record levels in China till the point it has disrupted road and air traffic in the capital of Beijing. “Now, it has become routine for colleagues to discuss when the smog will disperse and how soon it will stage a comeback”, Song said, adding that she and her coworkers are anxious about more red alerts for air quality, since the city’s weather observatory has issued two in December alone.
AsiaOne reported that, Beijing’s notorious smog devastates lung health but can crack cases in an unexpected way. “We are still facing some challenges in environmental protection”.
The research compared people’s awareness of their social status today with five years ago.
The first time the red alert was issued this month in Beijing, the levels of pollution dropped with 30% in the first 10 hours after the alert.
Cuba and China have a “long-running friendship” and the flight will draw more “tourists and Chinese businessmen” to the island, Cuban Ambassador to China Alberto Jesus Fernando Silva said during a ceremony organized by Cuban diplomats and Air China at the Beijing airport before the plane’s departure. As the smog wave is still affecting the city, all the outdoor constructing will be stopped until further notice. As the situation in China is getting worse every day, the government will issue new policies.
When told the news, Zhang Qiang looked out the window, stared at the smog-enveloped city and said, “There’s much more to do”.
Vehicles drive through heavy smog. The main problem still comes from the energy and industry departments, that need to cut the number of emissions.
There are four color-coded levels, in order from most severe to least: red, orange, yellow and blue.
Beijing and northern Chinese cities adopted large-scale temporary pollution reduction measures in the run up to an APEC meeting in November 2014, and a military parade in September this year.
Some experts say burning of coal in small-scale stoves is a greater cause of pollution than large thermal power plants due to inefficiency and high levels of sulphur and ash in coal. Germany’s Max Planck Institute has published a study in “Nature” magazine estimating that some 1.4 million people die prematurely in China each year because of pollution.