westcanforum

This was also in today`s Journal,

Health fears over pollution levels in Beijing
  By Malcolm Moore, The Daily Telegraph November 11, 2011 

The Chinese government promised Friday to make its misleading readings of smog levels more accurate after a wave of public anger at Beijing's atrocious pollution.

The capital's pea-soup pollution has worsened dramatically in recent months forcing a leading official to concede that the country's air standards were not being monitored correctly.

Zhang Lijun, China's vice-minister of environmental protection, said air quality in China was poor according to standards set by the World Health Organization. He conceded that Beijing relied on a "limited" system of pollution measurement.

Hua Lei, vice director of the city's monitoring centre, told Xinhua, the state news agency: "We hope the new move can allay the public's fears."

As a pall of yellow-brown smog settled over Beijing Friday, the city's air pollution index stood at 84, or grade 2. That officially made it a "blue-sky day", according to its environmental bureau.

A monitoring station at the U.S. embassy in downtown Beijing produces figures that are published on the Internet which usually tell a different story.

The embassy sensor measures the quantity of airborne particles and then assembles a 500-point index. It scored the air Friday as 229, or "very unhealthy". The U.S. index has twice exceeded 500, triggering a health warning.

Mr Zhang suggested that China would try to measure particulates in the atmosphere more accurately. Tiny microns, or particulates, can pass through the lungs and into the blood, increasing the incidence of heart disease and lung cancer, especially in the elderly and in children.

Xinhua said key industrial cities would try to cut particulate pollution by about 10 per cent in the next four years.

Air pollution was particularly bad in the capital this month, causing a wave of anger on the Internet. A number of Chinese celebrities suggested that the government should adopt stricter pollution standards. They included Pan Shiyi, a property developer who has seven million followers on Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

Mr Pan wrote: "If people know how serious the problem is, they can prevent air pollution and change their unhealthy lifestyles and habits."

Hao Jiming, a professor of environmental science and engineering at Tsinghua University, told Xinhua: "China is among the worst polluted places by particulate matter in the world."

Copyright (c) The Daily Telegraph
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Health+fears+over+pollution+levels+Beijing/5698169/story.html