Mysterious Yellow/Green Haze Swallows Chinese City

[FarLeftFist]

Young and old residents of the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors on Monday after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people, official media said.

Described by residents as opaque with yellowish and greenish tinges, the fog descended suddenly in the morning, prompting people to rush to put on face masks, witnesses told AFP.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted the environmental protection department of Hubei province saying in a statement: "Children, the elderly and people with heart or respiratory diseases are advised to stay indoors."

Xinhua said straw burning was the cause and denied there had been any industrial accidents in or near Wuhan, after Internet rumours suggested there had been an explosion at a chemical complex northeast of the city.

"The source of the thick cloud that has covered the city of Wuhan since this morning is at present unknown," it said on its website. "Local authorities have promised us the information as soon as possible."





More: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-wuhan-city-covered-mysterious-haze-145340073.html

[Fawke Em]

1. Unknown?

Bullshit.

[intaglio]

2. Very familiar to Brits over 55 and the residents of Donora

Smog

[Skittles]

3. CORRECT

[Speck Tater]

4. I saw that movie!

We know what's lurking within that cloud!

[greytdemocrat]

12. LOL!! Loved that movie!!!

[murielm99]

5. The Mist, by Stephen King,

or the pea soup that ate Wuhan.

All kidding aside - this sort of thing is scary.

[DeSwiss]

6. K&R

[sld6397]

7. component

How about the result of component analysis?

[eridani]

8. Good question, and welcome to DU

The Chinese government is not very forthcoming with data and statistics, though.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. looks like smog from industrial coal smoke and coal fires.

This is the sort of thing they used to get in London upon a time before they had one that lasted for days and killed thousands and then decided to pass clean air laws. Like this:



(that photo? It's daytime; that's the sun.)

[aquart]

10. Ain't unregulated industry just swell?

[Blue_Tires]

14. Teabaggers would say the market works, and this is proof!

[CreekDog]

11. "Hazardous" levels on our Air Quality scale

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-12/china-detains-2-for-wuhan-pollution-rumor-daily-reports

Monitoring by Wuhan’s environmental authorities found that for each cubic meter of air in the city yesterday afternoon, there were 0.58 milligrams of matter 10 micrometers in size, CCTV reported. The national standard for so-called PM10 matter is 0.15 milligrams per cubic meter of air, according to CCTV.

=======

We don't usually see those levels here except when there are major wildfires, the ones outside LA and San Diego a several years ago produced those levels in those cities.

[badtoworse]

13. They enjoy a competitive advantage with their blatant disregard for the environment

There are costs associated with environmental protection that our manufacturers pay, but Chinese manufacturers obviously do not. I generally don't support tariffs, but this is a situation where the playing field is clearly not level. We should impose a tariff on Chinese goods that is at least equal to the cost of the environmental protection measures practiced in the US and Europe.

[adigal]

15. In the school I teach at, we had a professor come talk to the faculty

He had spent many years in China. He said that there are 100 cities the in China with over a million people, and that the pollution in most of them was horrrendous. I never even heard of Wuhan, a city of 9 million, so I am sure he was right about a lot of what he said.

[Franker65]

16. Disturbing

I could get over it if it was normal smog, but what's making it yellow? More money certainly needs to be put into fighting pollution over there.