Shanghai Orders Cars Off Roads as Pollution Exceeds Scale

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Bloomberg

Shanghai ordered vehicles off the road and factories to cut production after pollution reached hazardous levels, as Hong Kong announced plans to introduce an air quality index that assesses health risks from smog.

A heavy fog shrouding Shanghai caused widespread flight cancellations and sent an air quality index monitored by the U.S. consulate in the city surging past 500 to the “beyond index” category. Hong Kong’s air pollution index reached “very high” levels at three roadside monitors, according to its Environment Protection Department.

Heavy pollution may undermine plans for the financial hubs to attract foreign talent and investment and push up health-care costs. Outdoor air pollution can cause lung cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a World Health Organization agency said in October, ranking it as a carcinogen for the first time.

“The pollution is worse today and the fog is getting heavier,” said Zhang Yanbing, analyst at Zheshang Securities Co. in Shanghai. “I am not prohibiting my kids from going outside because we have to learn to grow up in all kinds of environment. But they are definitely wearing face masks.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-06/shanghai-haze-forces-plane-cancellations-pollution-warnings.html

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[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. It was a HUGE mistake for China to go all out in encouraging people to buy cars

The air in Beijing and Shanghai was full of coal dust in 1990, when most people still rode bicycles. (Both cities are quite flat, and Beijing's climate is dry.)

China had a chance to develop along a new model, with world-class public transit in each city, and they blew it.

[subterranean]

4. Well, Shanghai has built an extensive subway system in the last 20 years.

One of the longest in the world, in fact. I'm sure that helps a lot, but the roads are still choked with cars.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Some car purchases were inevitable as people became more affluent, BUT

the Chinese government actively encouraged car use and built freeways to accommodate them.

[denverbill]

2. Oh no. More job-killing regulations.

Pretty soon, the tree-huggers and enviro-nuts are going to destroy this capitalist paradise as well.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. I'm sure none of that smog gets indoors at all

Staying indoors will keep everyone safe because air inside is obviously not the same as air outside. It just isn't. It's safer. Door cracks and window leaks filter out all the big particles, and only the clean air is breathable inside.

[Revanchist]

5. Quick, institute an E-cig ban! That will clear the air right up! N/T

[IDemo]

6. "we have to learn to grow up in all kinds of environment."

That's the spirit....

[SCVDem]

7. Hard to believe

This used to be Los Angeles and Mexico City in the 70s.

DAMNED REGULATIONS!!!

Drive behind a 60s pick up to bring back memories of noxious exhaust.

It was my one memory of Carson City.

[Stuart G]

8. Here is a link, to what it means to be over 500 as mentioned in article above

This is at AirNow.gov, our site for pollution around the USA. You can see by the map..500 is beyond what we call hazardous..
Check out the link to see what is going on now in this country. (You will need to click on ..current conditions ).It is an outstanding site in my opinion

http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.main

[Hekate]

9. Shanghai joins the ranks of London's historic "pea soup fog"...

London had its "pea soup fog" in the 19th century; Los Angeles had its smog in the 20th.

Both those phenomena were killers -- bringers of severe asthma and other lung diseases. Both of those cities have cleaned up their air considerably.

It can be done. It has been done.

The difference this time is that Mother Earth herself is choking to death from industrialized nations, and China is a nation of over a billion people.

China will have to clean itself up -- we cannot make them do it. However, being a dictatorship still, they can choose to take drastic measures and make them stick -- if they see the necessity.

[penultimate]

12. One thing is that China has a lot more people than the US, Mexico, England etc...

So those extreme instances are far more numerous in China. How many LA/London/NYC sized cities does China have? Hopefully they will start taking steps to keep their people and the rest of world's people safe. I don't buy into the argument that they deserve their industrial revolution too, and should be allowed to pollute as much as they want because of it.

[Mother Muckraker]

11. 2010 29% of Smog in the SF Bay Area from China

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/12/01/california-pollution-made-in-china/

Ewing and her team found that the median proportion of Asian lead in the PM2.5 was 29%.
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The question now is how much of that 29% can be attributed to San Francisco’s penchant for China-made iPhones and iPads?