CHINA: Beijing wakes up to another day of thick smog which parents worry is harming their children's health, two weeks after record air pollution sparked a public outcry

Record ID: 217132

  • Title: CHINA: Beijing wakes up to another day of thick smog which parents worry is harming their children's health, two weeks after record air pollution sparked a public outcry
  • Date: 29th January 2013
  • Summary: SCREEN OF WEBSITE OFF THE BEIJING MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING CENTRE SHOWING DOTS REPRESENTING MONITORING STATIONS IN BEIJING, MOUSE CLICKING ON TWO DIFFERENT MONITORING STATIONS, WINDOWS APPEARING SHOWING AIR QUALITY INDEX BOX SHOWING AIR QUALITY INDEX READING MP 2.5 448'
  • Embargoed: 13th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Reuters ID: LVACG4TNSAT7UQPHXARK8EIX1RI2
  • Story Text: Beijing's air pollution worsened further on Tuesday (January 29), deepening public concern about the thick smog which has highlighted the long-term environmental challenges facing the city.
    The capital's official air quality monitoring system showed that readings at around noon (0400 GMT) hovered over 400 on an index that measures particulate matter in the air with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers, known as PM2.5.
    Air quality readings from the U.S. embassy in Beijing peaked at an index level of 475 at 1pm local time (0500 GMT).
    A level of 300 is considered dangerous while the World Health Organisation recommends a daily level of no more than 20. On January 12, levels exceeded 700, causing a public outcry. Since then, the city's air quality had dipped in and out of the most serious levels of air pollution.
    On Tuesday, a thick grey pall hung over Chang'an Avenue, the massive, often-congested road which runs through the city centre.
    At Beijing's children's hospital, parents holding babies and young children sat in the corridor beside the respiratory illness ward while many children could be seen on intravenous drips.
    The director of the hospital's outpatient department said on Monday (January 28) that the 'continuous smoggy weather has significantly increased the number of child patients', the Economic Observer newspaper reported.
    Hospital figures said 50 percent of general patients came to the outpatient ward with respiratory complaints, the report said.
    High levels of PM2.5 can cause cardiopulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infection, according to the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.
    Mother Hu Chunping said she was concerned the air was exacerbating her daughter's skin condition.

    "Of course I'm worried. My child has a skin allergy. Before she very rarely experienced symptoms, but the doctor said that with the recent air quality getting worse, there are more and more patients suffering from this condition," she said.
    Another mother, Wo Xiaoling, said the authorities needed to do something.

    "They need to plan properly, including construction, traffic and other aspects to decrease the pollution as much as possible. In the past there used to be a blue sky, but now we never see the colour of the sky. There are really too many elderly people and children getting ill," she said.
    Many people walking and cycling on the streets were wearing face masks to block out the fumes.
    Emissions from factories and heating plants, fumes from millions of vehicles and the burning of coal can combine to blanket the city in a pungent haze. This can become trapped when weather conditions are right.
    China's state-run media has been unusually vocal about the pollution crisis, calling on authorities to move away from a 'growth at all costs' development model.
    Official national broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) ran a section in their news bulletins on the ongoing smog.

    "Moving on, let's all look at this big screen behind us. Everyone is a bit fed up with this subject, but we need to continue to pay attention to the continuing smoggy weather. Today the National Meteorological Centre continued to issue a 'blue alert' for fog and smog," said the unnamed anchor.
    CCTV also ran live broadcasts of the smog hanging in the city centre.
    From the first day of this year, Beijing started publicly releasing PM2.5 readings from multiple monitoring stations across the capital and in 73 other cities, a move welcomed by many calling for more transparency on the issue.
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