Beijing has ordered 2,100 factories to suspend or reduce production as part of its “red alert” measures to deal with smog, the Chinese government said yesterday, as the city remained shrouded under toxic haze for the third consecutive day.
The Chinese capital imposed the highest tier of a four-color smog warning system for four days starting on Saturday, the second time a red alert has been applied since Beijing established the pollution precaution scheme in 2013.
As part of China’s “emergency response plan,” 2,100 factories in the city and on its outskirts have been ordered to either stop or scale back production in an effort to cut emissions, said an official from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, who declined to be named.
Photo:Reuters
The government was sending inspectors to the plants on a daily basis, she said.
“[The factories] all strictly carried out the measures,” she added.
Levels of PM2.5 — fine particles measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — were 172 micrograms per cubic meter earlier yesterday, according to the US embassy, which issues independent readings.
The reading is nearly seven times the WHO’s recommended maximum exposure of 25 over a 24-hour period.
PM2.5 levels are expected to peak at more than 300 micrograms per cubic meter today, the state-run Beijing Daily reported, citing environment authorities.
During the red alert, Beijing pulls half the city’s cars off the roads, except for buses, taxis, electric cars and vehicles for special purposes, such as ambulances, while the public transport system, including subways, increases capacity, the report said.
Schools and kindergartens in Beijing were advised to close yesterday and today under the red alert and teaching materials were uploaded online for students, the paper said.
It added that 33 cities in other provinces, including Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, Henan in central China and Shandong in the east, also imposed similar steps to contain the smog.
Measures reduce PM2.5 levels by up to 30 percent compared with a simulation of the situation where no action is taken, the city’s environment authorities said, according to the report.
Beijing issued its first-ever red alert on Dec. 7, declaring emergency pollution measures, following scathing public criticism of the city’s weak response to choking smog that settled on the city earlier in the month.
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