October 21,2013
By Louis Watts, The Associated Press
BEIJING - Visibility shrank to
less than half a football field and small-particle pollution soared to a
record 40 times higher than an international safety standard in one
northern Chinese city as the region entered its high-smog season.
The manager for U.S. jazz singer
Patti Austin, meanwhile, said the singer had canceled a concert in
Beijing because of an asthma attack likely linked to pollution.
Winter typically brings the worst
air pollution to northern China because of a combination of weather
conditions and an increase in the burning of coal for homes and
municipal heating systems, which usually starts on a specific date. For
the large northern city of Harbin, the city`s heating systems kicked in
on Sunday, and on Monday visibility there was less than 50 meters
(yards), according to state media.
"I couldn`t see anything outside
the window of my apartment, and I thought it was snowing," Wu Kai, 33, a
housewife and mother of a baby boy, said in a telephone interview from
Harbin. "Then I realized it wasn`t snow. I have not seen the sun for a
long time."
She said her husband went to work
in a mask, that he could barely see a few meters (yards) ahead of him
and that his usual bus had stopped running.
"It`s scary, too dangerous. How could people drive or walk on such a day?"
The density of fine particulate
matter, PM2.5, used as an indicator of air quality was well above 600
micrograms per cubic meter - including several readings of exactly 1,000
- for several monitoring stations in Harbin, according to figures
posted on the website of China`s environmental protection agency. They
were the first known readings of 1,000 since China began releasing
figures on PM2.5 in January 2012, and it was not immediately clear if
the devices used for monitoring could give readings higher than that.
A safe level under WHO guidelines is 25 micrograms per cubic meter.
Primary and middle schools and
some highways were closed, said authorities in the city, which is in
China`s northernmost province bordering Russia. At least 40 flights to
destinations in southern China and Beijing among others were canceled or
postponed at Harbin`s Taiping International Airport on Monday morning.
Austin`s management team said the
63-year-old singer had been treated in a hospital Friday morning for an
asthma attack in combination with a respiratory infection. She returned
to her hotel later Friday to rest, but was unable to perform at her
Beijing concert scheduled for Friday evening. Her Saturday night concert
in Shanghai went ahead.
Her manager, Barry Orms, said
Monday that Austin, as an asthma sufferer, would have been "affected by
the amount of pollution." He said that it wasn`t their goal to place
blame, and that "Patti has expressed our belief that the Chinese
government can be a leader in this very important issue."
On the morning ahead of her
concert Friday, Beijing`s air was visibly polluted, with the city`s
environmental monitoring center warning children, the elderly and those
with respiratory illnesses to reduce outdoor activity.
China`s major cities have some of
the world`s worst smog. The government was long indifferent to the
environment as it pursued economic development, but has begun launching
some anti-pollution initiatives after mounting public frustration.
Last month, China`s Cabinet
released an action plan that aims to make a small reduction in the
country`s heavy reliance on coal to below 65 percent of total energy
usage by 2017. According to Chinese government statistics, coal
consumption accounted for 68.4 percent of total energy use in 2011.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Story Image: Two women cover up
their mouths and noses with a jacket as they cross a street covered by
dense smog in Harbin, northern China, Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. (AP
Photo/Kyodo News)
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