On Scale Of 0 To 500, Beijing's Air Off The Charts AT 755; Residents: "Terrifying" "Beyond Belief"

[hatrack]

BEIJING — One Friday more than two years ago, an air-quality monitoring device atop the United States Embassy in Beijing recorded data so horrifying that someone in the embassy called the level of pollution “Crazy Bad” in an infamous Twitter post. That day the Air Quality Index, which uses standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, had crept above 500, which was supposed to be the top of the scale.

So what phrase is appropriate to describe Saturday’s jaw-dropping reading of 755 at 8 p.m., when all of Beijing looked like an airport smokers’ lounge? Though an embassy spokesman said he did not immediately have comparative data, Beijing residents who follow the Twitter feed said the Saturday numbers appeared to be the highest recorded since the embassy began its monitoring system in 2008.

The embassy’s @BeijingAir Twitter feed said the level of toxicity in the air was “Beyond Index,” the terminology for levels above 500; the “Crazy Bad” label was used just once, in November 2010, before it was quickly deleted by the embassy from the Twitter feed. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, levels between 301 and 500 are “Hazardous,” meaning people should avoid all outdoor activity. The World Health Organization has standards that judge a score above 500 to be more than 20 times the level of particulate matter in the air deemed safe.

In online conversations, Beijing residents tried to make sense of the latest readings. “This is a historic record for Beijing,” Zhao Jing, a prominent Internet commentator who uses the pen name Michael Anti, wrote on Twitter. “I’ve closed the doors and windows; the air purifiers are all running automatically at full power.” Other Beijing residents online described the air as “postapocalyptic,” “terrifying” and “beyond belief.”

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/science/earth/beijing-air-pollution-off-the-charts.html?_r=0

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Back in the 50's our town used to be like that.

Pulp/paper mills on 4 sides of the town, each with its own unique smell ( you could easily tell which direction the wind was glowing)
and "fog" so thick in the am someone would have to walk in front of the car to get to school/job, in town,
since the "fog" would usually burn off by afternoon when you needed to drive home.
the bad air was always called "fog" (just like London's smog was named).
at the end of the 50's and into 1960's, one by one the mills closed ( Weyerhauser was the last one, I think)
the air magically got better and better.

[pscot]

3. Back in the late 40's, Chicago ran on coal

and on winter mornings the air was thick enough to chew.

[NYC_SKP]

2. No problemo. Simple Solution.

.

Remove the air-quality monitoring device or make the data top-secret.

[Bigmack]

5. Oh come on, guys....

Fox news pointed out that there's no global climate change, because you just can't trust those numbers on the thermometers, and I'm SURE that they'll soon point out that you can't trust those numbers on the air pollution monitoring equipment..... Ms Bigmack

[phantom power]

4. Anybody else remember how Asia was going to leapfrog our 1950s pollution?

[NoOneMan]

6. mushrooms?

[joshcryer]

7. Oh yes, regular postings here about China as a role model.

It was charming to say the least.

[hatrack]

8. Yes, something about a "Solar City" or something like that . . . .

It was across the Rainbow Bridge from Shanghai, last I heard . . .

[phantom power]

9. I admit I was thinking of 1990s Wired articles

probably written by Tom "flat-earth" Friedman. But either way. They were supposedly going to leapfrog us into some kind of energy efficient fossil-free manufacturing economy. Not so much.