Tuesday, January 29, 2013

(BN) Residents Told to Stay Inside Again, Smog Covers Beijing

(Bloomberg ) Beijing recommended the city's residents stay indoors today to avoid exposure to "serious" levels of air pollution in the Chinese capital.

Air quality was given the worst rating on the city's six- level scale today, according to the Beijing Municipal Environment Monitoring Center's website. The concentration of PM2.5, the fine air particulates that pose the greatest health risk, was an average of 370 micrograms per cubic meter near Tiananmen Square in the 24 hours to 8 a.m., it said. The World Health Organization recommends daily exposure to PM2.5 of no higher than 25.

Wang Anshun, the municipality's newly-appointed mayor, said pollution should be the city government's top priority, the China Daily newspaper reported today. Beijing has already proposed rules that would scrap old vehicles, ban new cement and steel factories, and impose fines for roadside vendors barbecuing food on smoggy days.

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