MCLC: pollution alerts

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: sean macdonald <smacdon2005 at gmail.com>
Subject: pollution alerts
******************************************************

Source: US News and World Report (2/21/14):
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2014/02/21/beijing-issue
s-rare-air-pollution-alert

Beijing issues rare air pollution alert, but it triggers relatively mild
control measures
 
By DIDI TANG, Associated Press
 

BEIJING (AP) ‹ When the air gets really bad, Beijing says it has an
emergency plan to yank half the city's cars off the road. The only problem
is: It may be difficult to ever set that plan in motion.

 
It wasn't triggered in January, when the city recorded extremely poisonous
air pollution. And not this week, when pollution was expected to continue
for several days at hazardous levels. A rare alert issued Friday was an
"orange" one ‹ the second-highest in the four levels of urgency ‹
prompting health advisories, bans on barbeques, fireworks and demolition
work, but no order to pull cars from the streets.

 
"Yesterday, I thought it was bad enough when I went out to eat. But this
morning I was hacking," a Beijing pedestrian who gave her name as Li said
Friday, as a thick haze shrouded the city.

 
Still, the government did not issue the red alert. Beijing's alert system
requires a forecast of three days in a row of severe pollution for the
highest level. Days of extreme pollution or polluted skies that are
expected to clear in less than three days do not trigger the most
stringent measures.

 
A period of pollution in January that saw density readings of PM 2.5
particles exceeding 500 micrograms per cubic meter prompted only the
mildest, blue-level alert. That density is about 20 times as high as the
25 micrograms considered safe by the World Health Organization.

 
The measures that went into effect Friday also ask members of the public
to use public transportation and to turn off their cars rather than let
them run idle, as well as call for water sprinkling on the street and
dust-control measures at building sites. The most stringent level, red,
would order half of Beijing 5 million cars off the road ‹ based on the
last digit of their license plate.
 
Ma Jun, of the non-governmental Institute of Public and Environmental
Affairs in Beijing, said that accurately forecasting three days of heavy
pollution is technically difficult.

 
But in any case, he said, the government is reluctant to adopt the most
disruptive measures, because it would be nearly impossible to notify all
drivers of the rules and to adequately boost the capacity of public
transportation to accommodate the extra passengers.
 
"When the alert is at a low level, the measures are not effective, but
those for the high-level alert are not feasible," Ma said. "The government
is reluctant to raise the alert level."

 
However, Ma credited the government with becoming more open in recent
months about air pollution levels, and noted that many people receive
real-time government updates about Beijing's air quality on their mobile
phones, so that they can take protective measures.

 
Associated Press video journalists Aritz Parra and Hélène Franchineau
contributed to this report.
 
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.