Beijing's pollution index hit its highest measurement level Friday and authorities warned people to stay indoors as a murky grey haze settled over the Chinese capital. The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said pollution had hit the heaviest level on the one-to-five scale five during the 24-hour period from noon Thursday.
"The city is experiening weather that is not beneficial to dispersing pollutants, so the city's emissions continue to concentrate creating a thick haze of pollution," it said on its website. "Even under conditions of light winds, changes in temperature, high humidity and fog, the situation has only worsened." The Beijing News called the pollution level the worst for the past six months as suspended particle levels reached a dangerous 300 micrograms per cubic meter.
"The effects of heavy pollution on the health are big, citizens should spend as little time doing outdoor activities as possible, especially children, elderly or those with heart and respiratory diseases," the bureau warned. The situation was expected to improve by Sunday.
During the past decade of China's economic boom, Chinese cities have ranked among the most polluted in the world, with Beijing's air quality consistently among the worst in the country. According to a report released in September by the European Space Agency (ESA), the world's largest amount of the smog gas, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), is hanging over Beijing and northeast China. Levels of NO2, a pollutant released by factories, power plants and vehicle exhausts, have risen by about 50 percent across China over the past decade as a result of spectacular economic growth and are continuing to increase, ESA said.
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