Flights have been canceled, people have been asked to remain indoors

Dec 6, 2013 13:00 GMT  ·  By

A few days ago, air pollution in China's city of Shanghai jumped to over 10 times what the World Health Organization considered a safe limit. Apparently, the urban area thought that there was still room for “improvement.”

Long story short, recent news on the topic says that, this Friday, local air concentration of fine particulate matter was one of 602.5 micrograms per cubic meter.

According to the folks working with the World Health Organization, the safe concentration of this air pollutant is one of just 25 micrograms per cubic meter.

This means that, for the time being, air quality in Shanghai is about 24 times worse than what the Organization says ordinary people can cope with without risking having their health affected.

Daily Mail tells us that, in the aftermath of this most recent air pollution crisis, visibility in the city of Shanghai was reduced to just a few dozen meters.

Wishing to keep the situation from going from bad to worse, the city's high officials have ordered people, especially children and the elderly, to remain indoors. The people who do venture outside their homes are asked to wear masks.

Besides, it appears that flights to and from the region have been canceled.

In an attempt to somewhat lower air concentrations of fine particulate matter, workers in the region have been asked to temporarily suspend all construction work.

The same source says that, all things considered, emissions from local coal-fired plants and recent weather patterns are to blame for Shanghai's ongoing air pollution crisis.

What's interesting is that, shortly after smog levels in Shanghai went through the roof, the city's Environmental Protection Bureau decided to lower air pollution standards. Its goal was to cut down on the number of alerts raised across this urban area.

Thus, the agency will no longer sound the alarm when fine particulate matter concentrations hit 75 micrograms per cubic meter, but when said concentrations hit 115 micrograms per cubic meter.