Beijing makes rare concession on pollution measure

BEIJING — In a rare bow to public pressure, the Beijing local government has begun using a more stringent measure for air quality, and the first publicly announced readings Thursday showed the air was “hazardous” in at least two areas of the polluted capital city.

The release of the data followed online protests and complaints that the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was providing a more accurate gauge of Beijing’s air than the city government, which typically tries to downplay the pollution as mere “fog.” And it capped a week in which Beijing has been shrouded in a particularly thick, low-hanging haze of pollution, the result of too many cars and too many nearby factories burning coal.

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Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Paul Allen reports on Beijing's air pollution levels. Poor air quality in Beijing, and the way it's reported by government authorities, is prompting some of the city's residents to take measurements into their own hands and post the results online. (Source: Bloomberg)

Several flights to and from the Beijing airport Thursday were canceled or delayed. Traffic has been backed up more than usual because of the low visibility, and several highways were closed. Parents have been keeping their children indoors. Residents have been racing to buy air purifiers, oxygen generators and face masks.

In a bit of black humor making the rounds here, people joke that you can smell China’s GDP in the air. But the official reaction to the pollution problem provides a sharp illustration of the challenges facing authorities as they try to maintain China’s enviable levels of growth, while also meeting the demands of increasingly informed urban residents for a better quality of life — including clean air to breathe.

The U.S. Embassy gauges the air quality from a monitor on its roof, and posts the results hourly on a Twitter account, BeijingAir. Postings over the past several days repeatedly declared the air “Hazardous” to those exposed to it for 24 hours, with several measurements so high as to be deemed “Beyond Index.” A respite came early Friday morning when pollution readings were deemed only “Unhealthy to Sensitive Groups” and then fell to “Moderate” levels.

Residents long accustomed to a polluted, congested capital are starting to openly complain.

“It's a fact that air pollution can damage your personal health,” said Wang Xi, 29, a computer engineer who said he has been riding a bicycle in the city for 10 years, first to school and now to work. He started wearing a high-tech mask after experiencing a sore throat.

The capital sits ringed by mountains on its north and west, so when a haze of pollution lumbers in, it just sits, and sits, and sits, until either strong winds or rains come along to push it off to the east.

‘The major problem is coal’

Technically, the stuff in the air is “particulate matter,” defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as dust, dirt, soot and smoke that comes from cars and power plants, like those in the provinces that surround Beijing.

According to a Jan. 8 report by the Xinhua News Agency, research by Beijing authorities found that 60 percent of the smallest particulate matter in the city’s air comes from coal burning, car emissions and industrial production; 23 percent from dust; and 17 percent from the use of solvents.

“The major problem is coal,” said Zhou Rong, a climate and energy campaigner for the environmental group Greenpeace, who wears a face mask when she goes outdoors and bought masks for her colleagues.