When it comes to air pollution, China is pretty much the worst. Chinese citizens are used to grey skies in summer, acid rain in winter and choking smog all year round, but nothing quite like this has ever happened. Harbin, the rough-and-tough capital city of Heilongjiang province is home to some 11 million people – all of whom tried to evacuate at the same time, when pollution reached critical levels just yesterday.
There is an internationally agreed index that is used to measure pollution, where a sample is taken to determine exactly how many particles of pollution there are around in the air. The index measure PM2,5, or, the number particulate matter with a diameter of 2,5 micrometers – a level of 20 is considered normal, while anything over 300 is considered ‘hazardous’.
Yesterday, in Harbin, the index measured a level of over 1000. Take a look below and see what happened.
[Source : Reuters]
