BEIJING CHOKING on SMOG EMERGENCY Measures Should be TAKEN Heavy smog in Beijing lasting for days has triggered public criticismover the municipal government's inaction. At 8 p.m. Sunday, the air quality index (AQI) at monitoring stations in the city's downtownareas read between 342 and 414 and was rated at Level 6, the highest level, indicatinghazardous pollution, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center'swebsite. The business channel of the China Central Television (CCTV) late on Saturday questionedwhy the government failed to initiate an emergency response under such smoggy weather. "Beijing municipal government, don't pretend to be blind in the fog," the channel said via itsaccount on the Twitter-like Weibo.com. The government should not shun itsresponsibility or turn a blind eye to the smog." The channel tweeted twice on the matter in five minutes, and the post had been forwardedby netizens thousands of times as of Sunday morning. Beijing is not the only region facing the suffocating air on Sunday. The NationalMeteorological Center issued a yellow alert at 6 a.m. Sunday, forecasting medium toserious haze in Beijing and nearby Tianjin Municipality and the provinces of Hebei,Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. It said smog would last until late Sunday, when afresh wave of rain and snow would hit most of the country. The Beijing municipal government approved and put into effect an emergency responsesystem last October. The system requires that traffic be cut with alternate driving days foreven- and odd-numbered license plates and schools suspended if a red alert, the highestlevel for air pollution, is issued. Industrial plants will be closed or told to reduce productionand fireworks will be banned if an orange alert, the second-highest alert, is issued. However, the government has not initiated the emergency response once since theprogram came into effect on Oct. 22, 2013, although the public has on several occasionscomplained of smog heavy enough to warrant a government response. The government issued a blue alert for air pollution late on Saturday. The city has a four tier alert system, using blue, yellow, orange and red to indicate the airpollution level in order of increasing severity. A red alert indicates the most serious air pollution, or Level 6 pollution, for threeconsecutive days. An orange alert indicates heavy to serious air pollution, or Level 5 toLevel 6, alternately for three consecutive days. The latest round of smog started on Friday, which marked both the traditional ChineseLantern Festival and Valentine's Day. Holiday fireworks brought the air quality index(AQI) from more than 300 in the morning to 500 in the evening. "abc news" "cbs news" "ap news" "nbc news" "bbc news" "wall street digital" "rt news" "breaking news" "world news" "global news" "latest news" "scientific news" "24 hour news" "apocalypse news" "us politics" "white house" "us political news" "us senator" US election" "us congressman" "us senate" "us house of representatives" "president obama" "us healthcare" "health insurance" "American politics" "us news" ssi "social security" forex "us disability" retirement "mortgage rates" "mortgage quote" lawyer usa us uk London politics "campaign finance"smog china Beijing emergency Residents questioned the lack of government action over the matter, believing authoritiesshould have banned fireworks. Wang Yuesi, a researcher with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the ChineseAcademy of Sciences, said orange and red alerts required action by the public, such ascutting traffic, and government authorities were reluctant to issue the response as smogfor three consecutive days is difficult to forecast accurately. "Environmental authorities lacked preparation in responding to smog for both technicalreasons and management reasons. All they hope is that continuous smoggy days like thisnever come," Wang said. He also said the response would be useless even if traffic were cut and the plantssuspended, because smog is not strictly a Beijing problem, but a common issue faced by amuch larger region, including Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and the nearby provinces ofHebei, Shandong and Henan. Wang's research last year found hazardous heavy metals in the air over Beijing came fromferrous metal smelting and coal burning in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. On Sept. 18, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and governments of Beijing, Hebei,Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Shanxi and Tianjin signed an agreement on pollution. TheMinistry of Finance announced in October a 5 billion yuan (824 million U.S. dollars) rewardfor air pollution reduction. A statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council held on Wednesdayhas urged reduction of PM2.5 and other pollutants in smoggy cities as the key task in thefight against air pollution.

• published: 17 Feb 2014
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