CHINA: Dissident Ai Weiwei joins outcry over Beijing's air pollution

Record ID: 217143

  • Title: CHINA: Dissident Ai Weiwei joins outcry over Beijing's air pollution
  • Date: 15th January 2013
  • Summary: AI LOOKING AT HIS TWITTER FEED, STILL IMAGE OF AI WEARING GAS MASK STILL IMAGE OF AI WEARING GAS MASK ON SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5S59Y12C8ZIHCCBXXPZ733K18
  • Story Text: Dissident artist Ai Weiwei joined a public outcry over Beijing's air pollution on Tuesday (January 15) as state media reported dramatic increases in patients visiting hospitals with respiratory complaints.
    Air quality in Beijing was far above hazardous levels over the weekend, reaching 755 on an index that measures particulate matter in the air with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers.
    A level of 300 is considered dangerous while the World Health Organization recommends a daily level of no more than 20.
    Levels fell on Tuesday, thanks in part to a light snow, but still reached 191 in the afternoon, which the U.S. embassy considers unhealthy.
    Ai, one of the government's most vocal critics, on Saturday (January 12) posted photographs of himself wearing a gas mask on his Twitter page.
    "I felt really helpless, and the only thing I could do was find a way to express it. I bought the gas mask and wore it on my face to send two messages: one was to let people know how disgusting the situation in Beijing is, the second was to say that every person has the ability to save themselves," he said in his Beijing studio.
    The thick smog blanketing the capital has sent many people out to buy face masks to protect themselves.
    Cars pump out much of the pollution which fills the air on cold, windless days. Many people burn coal for heat in the winter, and this winter is the coldest in years.
    Greenpeace said the weekend's pollution was the worst ever recorded in the capital, while the People's Daily newspaper reported that around half of 74 cities monitored for air quality showed severe pollution.
    Authorities advised citizens to stay indoors and ordered government car fleets to cut back driving.
    China's cautious media has been unusually bold on the issue, calling on the government to take urgent action to tackle the pollution.
    State-run broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported that the number of people visiting the respiratory medicine department of Beijing's Chaoyang hospital had risen by 10 to 30 percent.
    One third of patients in the city's Children's Hospital were suffering from respiratory tract infections, while colds and fevers are common, CCTV reported.
    Seats and beds were in shortage on Monday (December 14) in major hospitals in Yongkang city in China's eastern Zhejiang province, which has also been shrouded in haze for days.
    "Now over 400 patients need infusion every day, while usually in the summer the number would only be a little more than 200," said Li Huahuai, head nurse at the Infusion Room of Yongkang's No.1 People's Hospital.
    Hefei, capital of the eastern province of Anhui, was seeing a similar phenomenon.
    "Our outpatient service usually receives about 20 to 30 patients a day, but now we are seeing more than 40 every day. We are seeing an extra ten people every half day," said Lu Youjin, doctor of respiratory medicine of the Second Hospital Attached to Anhui University.
    Particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers, known as PM2.5, can cause cardiopulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infection, according to the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.
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