A swathe of China was blanketed with dangerous acrid smog Monday after levels of the most dangerous particulates reached around 50 times World Health Organization maximums, with energy use for heating blamed as winter sets in.
Pictures showed smog so thick that buildings in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province in the northeast, were rendered invisible, AFP reported.
One image showed a restaurant’s neon sign seemingly floating in mid-air above traffic, proclaiming in yellow: “Northeastern Dumpling King”.
An image circulating online showed a man biking through snow in Shenyang, capital of the neighboring province of Liaoning, on Sunday wearing a vintage-looking gas mask, and the official news agency Xinhua quoted a hospital official in the city saying that his respiratory ward had been overwhelmed, with all its beds full.
Levels of PM2.5, the tiny airborne particles considered most harmful to health, reached 860 micrograms per cubic meter in Changchun, a city of around eight million, on Monday.
The World Health Organization’s recommended maximum is a 24-hour average of 25 micrograms.
The Changchun city government said on social media it was initiating a “level three” emergency response, telling schools to stop organizing outdoor activities, and reminding residents to stay indoors and “take health precautions”, without further specifications.
China’s chronic pollution problem has been linked to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, and has become a major source of popular discontent with the government.
Central Heating
Overall levels of PM2.5 particulates reached 1,157 micrograms per cubic meter in Shenyang on Sunday, data from the city’s own environmental protection bureau showed.
They peaked as high as 1,400 in parts of the city according to state broadcaster CCTV, with visibility less than 100 meters.
The readings appear to be among the highest ever publicly recorded in China.
The extreme smog was caused by the city’s coal-powered public heating system being switched on with the onset of winter, and by heavy pollution blown in from other provinces, city environmental authorities said on a verified social media account.
The explanation provoked derision online.
“Sweden also has central heating – why don’t they have haze?” asked one poster.
The official Xinhua News Agency called the measures “useless.”
“When you go out you feel the air burns your eyes, your throat hurts, so you go buy a mask, but it’s not really clear what we should specifically be doing,” it quoted one resident in Shenyang as saying.
Dangerous pollution has been linked to premature deaths and disease, including heart attacks, stroke, cancer and other lung diseases.
The pollution that has come alongside China’s economic growth is a source of popular discontent with the government.
