Only a day after the China Ministry of Education allowed 27 North China schools to close for 2 days during a heavy smog crisis, the CFTU issued their third in a series of URGENT HEALTH ALERTS, to warn teachers with asthma not to come to China, and if already in China to remain indoors with air filters and facemasks attached.
Gregg Finch, one of the CFTU directors exlained: "At this point meteorologists and the U.S. embassy have agreed with leading pulmonologists that the air is now toxic and could indeed be fatal to those with acute asthma, and debilitating to those with any form of asthma".
Every winter, China's 219 coal plants fire up on November 15th and and because dirty coal (high in sulfur content) is used to save money, gritty pollutants about 3-5 microns in size are spewed into the air and drift for miles and settle on every surface, creating a dirty dark gray film up to an eighth of an inch thick on bad days.
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China's 3.8 million cars in Beijing an Shanghai just compound an already bad situation with even more emissions. The above photo was taken at 3:15 in the afternoon in Beijing.
Research done by the Economist magazine say that breathing winter air in Beijing is like smoking 40 cigarettes a day, although the Chinese government says this is an exaggeration. Still the CFTU is advising anyone with respiratory issues to use extreme caution in their travels to China. Source: http://www.economist.com/news/china/21661053-new-study-suggests-air-poll...
