Shanghai's Worst Smog in Two Years Spurs Production Limits
Bloomberg News-
Schools ordered to keep children indoors as emergency measure
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Yellow haze alert signals heavy pollution may persist
Tourists walk on the Bund in Shanghai during heavy smog on Dec. 14.
Photographer: Zhong Yang/Imaginechina via AP ImagesShanghai ordered schools to keep children indoors and factories to limit production as a hazy smog enveloped the metropolis and the most dangerous air contaminants reached the highest levels in two years.
The city’s air quality index hit 217 at 4 p.m., or “heavily polluted,” the second worst in a 6-grade scale, the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center said. It had improved from “severe” earlier, when PM2.5 levels -- particulates considered the must dangerous to health -- rose to as high as 281 micrograms per cubic meter, the most since Dec. 26, 2013, according to U.S. State Department data tracked by Bloomberg. The World Health Organization recommends no more than daily average exposures of 25 micrograms.
