Beijing Warned of Pollution Risk

Feb. 25, 2014 12:45 p.m. ET

The World Health Organization is concerned about China’s air quality and urged residents to stay indoors. The organization’s Bernhard Schwartländer tells the Deborah Kan just how bad the pollution is in China’s capital.

BEIJING—The World Health Organization on Tuesday called on China to improve its air quality and urged residents of Beijing to stay indoors as the capital city suffered a sixth day of hazardous-level air pollution.
Bernhard Schwartländer, the organization’s China chief, said he is concerned about the smog that has smothered Beijing in recent days. The WHO has been in contact with national authorities to discuss the problem and steps toward a solving it.
“There is no easy solution,” Dr. Schwartländer said, adding that solving the problem requires managing industry and the economy.

Photos: Beijing Smog

A chimney of a heating plant is obscured by heavy haze in Beijing. Associated Press

As of Tuesday night, levels of tiny, hazardous particulate matter known as PM2.5 averaged 452 micrograms per cubic meter over a 24-hour period, according to readings from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. That was more than 18 times the WHO’s recommended level of 25 micrograms per cubic meter.
Heavily pollution has plagued much of northern and central China since Thursday. Since the weekend, governments in the northeastern city of Tianjin and northern Hebei province have taken steps that include reducing the number of cars on the road and suspending some production in industries such as steel.
China’s National Meteorological Center said Tuesday it reaffirmed the region’s orange alert, its second-most-severe air-pollution warning after red under a system enacted in October amid rising public pressure on authorities to act on pollution. That alert level requires a halt to construction work and orders factories to temporarily reduce emissions by 30%. Fireworks and outdoor barbecuing are also banned. Children and the elderly are advised to stay indoors, and residents are encouraged to use public transportation instead of cars.
In Beijing, where a light gray mist shrouded buildings and landmarks, WHO officials said the pollution levels pose a threat to human health, though they cautioned that they couldn’t link recent pollution levels with local media reports of specific cases of lung cancer and other ailments.
“We’re cautious of whether the illness is related to air pollution,” said Shin Young-Soo, the WHO’s Western Pacific regional director, adding, “We know it has an impact on health, but we don’t know how much.”
In a sign that China’s top leadership acknowledges the problem poses a credibility issue for them, official Chinese media covered the pollution problem extensively. The official Xinhua News Agency quoted a local environmental official in Hebei province as acknowledging that a lawsuit filed by a citizen against the local government reflected increasing environmental awareness. Xinhua said the citizen, Li Guixin, filed the suit in a local court in the district of Yuhua on Feb. 20.

Visitors wearing masks outside the Temple of Heaven in smog-covered Beijing. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Meanwhile, China’s online community remarked on the appearance of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, on a trendy street in Beijing Tuesday. Chinese social media showed Mr. Xi —China’s president and the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party—strolling down an alleyway called Nanluoguxiang, an area popular with tourists and filled with street-food vendors and other businesses. Such public appearances by senior Chinese leaders are rare.
Many noted that he walked outside on such a heavily polluted day without an air mask. “Breathing together, sharing the same fate,” read a widely repeated response on Sina Corp.’s SINA -9.33% Sina Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq $68.98 -7.10 -9.33% Feb. 25, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 9.36M AFTER HOURS $69.09 +0.11 +0.16% Feb. 25, 2014 7:59 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 87,699 P/E Ratio 101.44 Market Cap $5.08 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $94,877.2 02/26/14 Beijing Pollution: How Bad Doe… 02/25/14 HEARD ON THE STREET: Wondering… 02/25/14 China’s Sina Plans U.S. IPO fo… More quote details and news » SINA in Your Value Your Change Short position Weibo microblogging platform.
—Wayne Ma and Josh Chin
Write to Laurie Burkitt at laurie.burkitt@wsj.com

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