A Buddhist wearing mask meditates at Temple of Heaven Park during a day of heavy pollution on December 9, 2015 in Beijing, China.
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“You have to do whatever you can to protect yourself”, Beijing resident Li Huiwen told a news agency.
The city of Beijing remained entombed in smog Wednesday, two days after the municipal government issued its first-ever red alert for pollution. The red alert warning in Beijing is expected to be lifted on Thursday, Dec. 10, when the smog is predicted to be dispersed by the cold front.
But the pollution crisis is really just the latest episode in a longtime problem that Chinese officials have been trying to solve.
It remains unclear how Beijing will respond to future airborne smog peaks, but other cities in the region followed its lead this week, issuing their own red alerts as pollution levels climbed even higher than those seen in the capital.
“Because of the smog, I generally tend to wear a mask indoors as well as outside, but today, I don’t even dare to go out”, said Yu Silong, who has been hospitalised for three days and had to quit his supermarket job to seek treatment.
The ancient Forbidden City palace complex and other Beijing landmarks were lost in a gray, soupy haze on Wednesday.
It has persisted despite the Chinese government’s stated priority of cleaning up the legacy of pollution left from years of full-tilt economic growth. Most of the smog is blamed on coal-fired power plants, along with vehicle emissions, construction and factory work.
Hebei province is one of China’s biggest consumers of coal, which authorities blamed for the spike in emissions of PM2.5, or particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers, which triggered this week’s emergency measures.
The China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing has launched a series of pulmonary function tests, low-dose spiral CT screening (LDCT), inhaled allergens testing and general health checks.
“Kids these days fall sick much more easily than we did when we were kids, yet we were not as wealthy as them, and we certainly didn’t enjoy as much convenience”, she added.
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According to an August air pollution report from Berkeley Earth, a climate research organization, “air pollution is believed to cause three to seven million deaths a year, primarily by creating or worsening cardio-respiratory disease”.
