(NaturalNews) Beijing and six surrounding Chinese provinces are being suffocated by horrendous bouts of pollution, as millions choke on one of the most dangerous outbreaks of smog ever to settle over the region.
The cloudy swath of choking smog has lasted for several days, prompting a spike in hospital visits. Various respiratory wards report a 20 to 50 percent increase in hospitalization in the past week. Concentrations of pollution measure as high as 505 micrograms, which the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences says is "uninhabitable for human beings."
Beijing residents struggle to breath, putting on masks as they walk down the street
Beijing residents are now walking up and down the streets wearing protective masks, as they fight against the fine particulate matter cutting its way into their lungs. View a picture of the pollution war zone here.
Inspection teams from China's Ministry of Environmental Protection have been deployed to shut down industries involved in polluting the environment. This includes concrete kilns and coal-burning power plants, which are hard to police. The shutdowns, too little too late, cannot stop a week-long bout of dense particulate smog, which has become apocalyptic in nature.
China's best cleanup efforts come by pawning off contaminated food to countries like the US
It seems that China's extensive list of environmental laws could not stop the inevitable self-destruction of its people, environment and industry. With over 5 million vehicles packed on its streets, Beijing is like a ticking time bomb.
This time bomb is beginning to go off in China, one wave of smog after another, as bouts of heavy metals and environmental contaminants are released into the soil and water, whence it is absorbed by marine life and agriculture. China's best environmental cleanup game plan is to pawn their contaminated food to other countries, including America, as a stealth pollution war is unleashed across the globe.
Fine particulate matter measurements exceed WHO safety levels by 16-fold
Still, the worst is yet to come, as US Embassy readings on the 24th of February in Beijing report PM2.5 contaminants in excess of 400 micrograms per cubic meter. Particulate matter poses the worst risk to human health. These measurements exceed the World Health Organization's safety limit by 16-fold. To put it in perspective, these levels are five times greater than smog levels typically measured in Los Angeles.
These extreme levels have prompted authorities to issue a code orange alert, which has never been used and is for heavy and dangerous smog lasting at least three consecutive days. On guard to unleash code red, authorities are scrambling to restrict industries from furthering the smog. According to a state-run Chinese newspaper, one man is attempting to sue the state for not taking earlier action, calling on the city's Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau to "perform its duty to control air pollution according to the law."
Air purifier sales triple as people search for rescue air
Activists, bloggers and authorities are calling on these businesses to buy air purifiers for the people. In fact, the state-run China National Radio reported air purifier sales in the region tripling.
"Now I'm sitting in front of it and breathing in as much as I can," wrote one Beijing blogger, describing a purifier as if it was a rescue breath. "I want to squeeze out the haze I breathed in the lungs yesterday, and put fresh air in."