14 DAY TRIAL // If one didn't know any better, one might assume that China and Iran have entered a race to see which of them can produce the most air pollution.
Just days after Tehran, i.e. Iran's capital city, was engulfed by smog, the news broke that, this Monday, air pollution in the city of Shanghai, China was ten times higher than what the World Health Organization considered safe.
According to Bloomberg, updated information shared with the public by the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center said that the local air pollution index had jumped over the 300 threshold at around 1.30 p.m. local time, and that the air was considered to be “severely polluted.”
The same source tells us that, by the looks of it, the air contaminant that Shanghai must first and foremost worry about is fine particulate matter. Thus, it appears that this contaminant is presently the primary pollutant in said city.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization warned that, as several scientific investigations had shown, common air pollutants and fine particulate matter could cause people to develop cancer.
“Particulate matter, a major component of outdoor air pollution, was evaluated separately and was also classified as carcinogenic to humans,” the Organization said at that time.
Hence, it should not come as a surprise that, when local air concentrations of this pollutant went through the roof, high officials in Shanghai were quick to warn people to remain indoors and limit their exposure to the highly contaminated air hovering over the city.
“The following groups should remain indoors and keep activity levels low: people with heart or lung disease, children and older adults. Everyone else should avoid all physical activity outdoors,” the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center wrote on its website.
Apparently, the city's ongoing air pollution crisis debuted on the day of this year's Shanghai International Marathon, during which 35,000 runners from as many as 84 countries competed against one another. The situation took a turn for the worse the day after the marathon.