Beijing engulfed by pea-souper smog, authorities issue new rules

Beijing has been engulfed by major pea-souper smog owing to fossil-fuel based industrial economy that keeps the city abreast with the global economy.

But the avariciousness of the multi-dollar economy is a big compromise with the citizens lungs.

There has been a lot of chaos after China decided to suspend local meteorological centres from issuing smog alerts amid rising public anger over deteriorating air pollution.

Following the worst air quality in the city, the concerned authorities have issued new rules to shut down factories and increase fines for vehicle emissions when smog reaches fatal levels.

Beijing has a four-tier alert system for air pollution, red being the highest, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

Lately, Greenpeace East Asia and the Shanghai Qingyue Environmental Protection Center, a Chinese environment organization, released a report painting a sombre picture of air quality standards in the world's second largest economy.

It is noteworthy that the pollution in the region is primarily caused by  coal-burning for industry use in provinces south of Beijing.

With Inputs from Agencies