Cold front's arrival could clear the air in Beijing
By Christine Cai |
January 15, 2013, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
COAL burning, vehicle exhaust, factory emissions and wind-blown dust are to blame for Beijing's lingering, choking air pollution that went off the index, authorities in the capital said yesterday.
These pollutants hang in the air when there is no wind, Beijing's environmental protection bureau told a press briefing.
Because north China has been experiencing extremely cold weather since December, heating by burning coal aggravated pollution in cities such as Beijing and Tianjin and neighboring provinces, which all reported high pollution levels.
The bureau said conditions would not improve until the arrival of a cold front tonight.
The high levels of pollution, which began late last week and have affected about a third of the country, should see an improvement from tomorrow, according to the national meteorological authority. Beijing officials also said conditions were expected to improve, with air quality excellent or good tomorrow and Thursday.
Beijing has taken emergency measures to combat the problem, including ordering factories to reduce pollution and taking almost a third of government vehicles off the road.
Dense haze started to affect Beijing from last Thursday. Air quality was heavily polluted that day, and then severely polluted, the highest level in a six-tier category, over the next three days.
"The air quality today and tomorrow is still likely to be seriously polluted," Zhang Dawei, director of the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center, said yesterday, "which means this round of pollution will last six days."
Since Thursday evening, the hourly density of PM2.5 in most of Beijing surpassed 300 micrograms per cubic meter and remained high ever since with many monitoring stations recording over 700 micrograms on Saturday. The majority of stations reported readings above 300 micrograms yesterday.
The nation's limit is 75 micrograms per cubic meter.
These pollutants hang in the air when there is no wind, Beijing's environmental protection bureau told a press briefing.
Because north China has been experiencing extremely cold weather since December, heating by burning coal aggravated pollution in cities such as Beijing and Tianjin and neighboring provinces, which all reported high pollution levels.
The bureau said conditions would not improve until the arrival of a cold front tonight.
The high levels of pollution, which began late last week and have affected about a third of the country, should see an improvement from tomorrow, according to the national meteorological authority. Beijing officials also said conditions were expected to improve, with air quality excellent or good tomorrow and Thursday.
Beijing has taken emergency measures to combat the problem, including ordering factories to reduce pollution and taking almost a third of government vehicles off the road.
Dense haze started to affect Beijing from last Thursday. Air quality was heavily polluted that day, and then severely polluted, the highest level in a six-tier category, over the next three days.
"The air quality today and tomorrow is still likely to be seriously polluted," Zhang Dawei, director of the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center, said yesterday, "which means this round of pollution will last six days."
Since Thursday evening, the hourly density of PM2.5 in most of Beijing surpassed 300 micrograms per cubic meter and remained high ever since with many monitoring stations recording over 700 micrograms on Saturday. The majority of stations reported readings above 300 micrograms yesterday.
The nation's limit is 75 micrograms per cubic meter.
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