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HARRY BAKER, LIVE SCIENCE
15 MARCH 2021
Beijing has been enveloped in one of its most severe sandstorms in over a decade, which has combined with air pollution to create a toxic, gritty haze that turned skies orange and made the skyline disappear.
The sandstorm hit the Chinese capital on Monday morning (March 15) after gale-force winds from Mongolia blew dust from the Gobi desert over the border. In Mongolia, 341 people are missing after the same sandstorm blew across the country, according to
Worsening the situation, Beijing s air pollution has been rising in recent weeks as the country comes out of lockdown. The Air Quality Index (AQI) for the city maxed out at a hazardous 999, according to the World Air Quality Index project. For context, at the same time, the AQI for New York was 26.
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BEIJINGERS WOKE up on the morning of March 15th to orange skies. In scenes that some compared to “Blade Runner 2049”, a dystopian film set in a hazy, futuristic Los Angeles, a heavy smog had descended on China’s capital. According to a scale used by the World Air Quality Index project, a non-profit group that monitors pollution, Beijing’s concentration of PM2.5, an especially harmful particulate that can enter the bloodstream, peaked at 655 in the early hours of Monday morning. Anything above 300 is considered hazardous. PM10, a slightly larger particle that can penetrate deep inside the lungs, surpassed the monitor’s maximum reading of 999. Other trackers recorded PM10 levels as high as 6,450µg/m (the World Health Organisation recommends that the maximum daily average of PM2.5 and PM10 per day should be 25µg/m3 and 50µg/m3 respectively). Beijingers are accustomed to heavy pollution, but Monday marked some of the worst conditions since a thick smog descended in
Study says air pollution played a role in early U.S. COVID-19 outbreak
Exposure to particulate matter a mixture of liquid and solid particles suspended in the air that ranges from dust to airborne transmission of viral droplets has been harmful to human health. Research led by Maria de Fatima Andrade from the University of São Paulo in Brazil found particulate matter plays a significant role in increasing coronavirus cases in cities.
The authors write: The findings support the viral transport hypothesis, i.e., virus can associate with the preexistent particulate matter in the air synergically. We conclude that PM2.5 plays a small, yet discernible, role in the COVID-19 transmission.