Beijing
's air pollution reached dangerous levels yet again on Sunday, marking
the third consecutive day of severe smog, municipal environmental authorities
said.
The municipal meteorological station issued the city's first orange fog warning
Sunday morning due to decreased visibility caused by the heavy smog.
Monitoring data released on Sunday showed that air quality indexes in most
regions of
Beijing
had hit 500, the indexes' highest level.
The municipal environmental monitoring center said readings for PM2.5, or
airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, had reached
more than 700 micrograms per square meter at several monitoring stations in
Beijing, reaching as high as 993 Saturday evening.
"These figures represent extremely bad pollution. Pollutants have
gradually accumulated over the course of recent windless days, making the air
quality even worse," said Zhu Tong, a professor from the college of
environmental sciences and engineering at
Peking
University
.
The pollution is expected to engulf
Beijing
until Wednesday, when wind will arrive to blow the smog away, according to a
weather report from the meteorological station.