Beijing, Dec 26: Beijing issued an alert for severe air pollution Friday, warning children and the elderly to avoid outdoor activities as limited visibility from the thick smog forced the airport to cancel 227 departures.
Officials in the capital raised their air pollution alert to orange, the second-highest on the city’s four-grade scale. The concentration of PM2.5 — the particles that pose the greatest health risks — was 503 micrograms per cubic meter near Tiananmen Square at 2 p.m. after reaching 647 in the morning, according to the municipal air-monitoring website.
The World Health Organization recommends PM2.5 exposure of no more than 25 over 24-hours.
Beijing Capital International Airport, the world’s second- busiest by passengers, reported the cancellations on its website Friday and said another 12 departures were delayed as of 4 p.m. local time because of poor visibility.
The canceled flights accounted for about 12 percent of scheduled departures Friday, according to the site.
