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Storm
Beijing, May 4, 2017 (dpa/NAN) Sandstorms engulfed northern China on Thursday, prompting authorities to issue a second warning in three weeks for children and old people to stay indoors.
The level of fine particulates those that can embed deep inside human lungs registered “beyond index” in stations across northern China including Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia.
The China Meteorological Administration issued a “blue alert” to remain in place until Friday as the beige haze blanketed Hebei, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Jilin and parts of Xinjiang.
China has a four-colour coded system for severe weather, with red the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
According to the U.S. embassy, Beijing registered 506 microgrammes of Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 microns and smaller per cubic metre on Thursday.
The World Health Organisation said that a maximum safe level was 25 microgrammes.
Airborne “PM 2.5” is fine enough to penetrate deep into the lungs, and is associated with increased risk of heart attack, stroke, lung cancer and asthma.
Levels throughout Beijing of “PM 10”, larger particles in the air harmful to health, surpassed 1,000 microgrammes early on Thursday morning, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre.
The warning followed a yellow alert issued on April 15 during reportedly the worst sandstorm in the Chinese capital for 13 years.
Spring is the traditional sandstorm season for northern China, when winds whip across the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia picking up sand and then dumping it all along a belt of heavily populated land further south.
The Chinese government claims the storms have diminished in the last 30 years, and credits the planting of billions of trees for the dust control. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Sadiya Hamza