Beijing issues pollution warning as skies turn yellow

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/6/05 | AFP - Beijing

[NormsRevenge]

BEIJING (AFP) - People in Beijing were warned to stay indoors as the Chinese capital was shrouded in yellow smog with pollution reaching dangerous levels.

"Under these polluted conditions, we propose that the majority of citizens reduce their time outdoors and avoid breathing this seriously polluted air," the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said in a warning posted on its website.

Beijing's air quality has been at the lowest level for the past two days with the air "seriously polluted," the bureau said.

Experts said the capital was experiencing a heat inversion, where warmer air in the atmosphere was keeping the colder ground air in place, making it difficult for the pollution to disperse, the bureau said.

Meanwhile warmer spring temperatures in the city also meant that work at construction sites has increased, further kicking up dust that is mixing with the ever-increasing auto pollution.

"Under this situation, the thickness of every kind of air pollution has clearly increased, especially breathable suspended particles, which have risen rather quickly," the bureau said.

Suspended particle levels were hovering around the dangerous level of 400 and 500 micrograms per cubic meter, it said.

According to satellite photos, the inversion was lingering over northern China's Hebei and Shanxi provinces and extending southward to the Yangtze river, the paper said.

During the past decade of China's economic boom, the nation has also produced some of the worlds most polluted cities, with Beijing's air quality regularly ranking among the worst in the country and world.

[UncleDick]

I was there in November. Any amount of physical exertion produced a burning sensation in the lungs. Not pleasant at all.

[Fast1]

The old timers had a saying a dark sky meant a good payday or something like that.

Now-days it means lung cancer!

[newfarm4000n]

You think private business is responsible for this pollution? In China?


True private business doesn't even exist in china.

[Bonaparte]

"They need environmentalists. We don't appreciate them often enough. Without them, we have...Bejing."

I can't recall too many "environmentalists" objecting to China's pollution index. Have you?

[hoagy62]

Sweet Lord! Is that for real??? High noon???

[this_ol_patriot]

Oh yes, here's a Google on Donora smog and lots of interesting things come up, it was the incident that brought air quality to the forefront back then. It was a lethal fog of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and metal dust, zinc, from the zinc works there. 20 people died. My Dad used to tell us about it.

We used to go past the Palmerton, PA zinc works back in the 60's on the way to Phillies games. It stripped an entire mountainside of trees and always stunk to high heavens but the money and the jobs were there. Here's a linked picture of that. It's cleaned up now.

Really though we weren't concerned that much back then. I grew up in the hard coal region of NE PA and we had culm banks in our back yards and coal trucks all over the place. We all burned coal and grew up blowing black snot all the time.

[traviskicks]

You think private business is responsible for this pollution? In China?
---

At least partially. I wonder what %. Although, I do recall Eastern Europe was much more polluted under the communists. Good point.

[manic4organic]

Red Chinese, yellow China.

[Walkin Man]

This is another reason why all the industrial jobs are going to communist China.

They don't mind poisoning their citizens/slaves as they crank out shoddy garbage for Wal Mart.

And no pesky lawyers or public activists to get in the way either, they just disappear in the middle of the night.

Yeah, communist China a capitalist paradise!

[jriemer]

The Olympics should be an interesting event in this venue. Don't look for any record times.

Coming to an Olympics near you!

Guy: "She said she choked on a chunk of air"

What's that stink?

[followerofchrist]

"I can't recall too many "environmentalists" objecting to China's pollution index. Have you?"

I wouldn't know, because they are probably illegal in China. As for leftists here, I have heard complaints. But what can they do?

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[TXBSAFH]

WHen Cina breaks it will not be pretty, and it is coming.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[F.J. Mitchell]

Dust from eroding yellow cake?

[Schwaeky]

Fortunately, they can do to environmentalists and labor union types in China (like in the photos of the Tibetans they executed) things we couldn't even consider here....

[farmfriend]

Snicker!

[ChadGore]

Pay no attention to the smoldering yellow haze smothering the failed socialist state.

[Iscool]

I don't see the problem...These American companies couldn't wait to get out of the U.S. of A. fast enough to be free from all these environmental and safety regulations...Now they're free and making busloads of money...

If we can just get rid of precipitators, waste water treatment plants and the County sewage treatment facilities so the companies can go back to dumping that stuff into the lakes and rivers, maybe we can get some of that business back...Lousy regulations anyway...