Forecasters clear up toxic fog panic (2)

Dozens of postings concerning the radiation fog appeared Sunday on Sina microblogs about the fog. A female Web user named Jin Xing said that the radiation fog got on her nerves.

"How much radiation do we have to face per day? Radiation fog can severely harm the human body and so let us take precautions!" she posted.

But another Web user, called Zhang Nan, said that he found it hard to believe the fog posed such a danger to human health.

"Is the severity of this radiation fog being exaggerated or not?" he posted.

Sun Jisong, the chief forecaster at the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Center, told the Global Times Sunday that residents had completely misunderstood the name of the type of fog.

"This fog forms because of cooling of the radiation [thermal heat from the sun] on the surface of the ground," he said.