ACTION
Emergency response measures were adopted on Sunday in some areas to deal with the heavy pollution, a senior official with the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said.
Outdoor sports activities for primary and middle schools were ordered to be halted from Sunday to Tuesday in extremely polluted areas, including Tongzhou, Miyun, Daxing, Mentougou and Fangshan districts, according to the municipal authorities.
Work was suspended at 28 construction sites and 54 businesses reduced their emissions by 30 percent, with Beijing Hyundai Motor Company halting production on Sunday, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said.
Fourteen inspection teams were dispatched to 14 districts and counties to oversee the pollution-reduction measures on Sunday, the bureau added.
Since Jan. 1, real-time air quality monitoring data on PM2.5 intensity in China's 74 major cities, including Beijing, has been available for citizens, a move undertaken at the request of the public.
The PM2.5 index is considered stricter than the PM10 standard previously adopted in China. The smaller particles it measures are more harmful to people's heath.
PM2.5 readings have been exceeding safe levels recently at more than half of the monitoring sites in Beijing and its neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, according to the China National Environmental Monitoring Center.
Feedback
RSS
