Beijing was covered in a this past week culminating in an off-the-charts toxicity level reading of 755 on Saturday. The municipal government in Beijing does not record numbers above 500, and some speculated the monitor had broken, but a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, which took the measurement and reported it on its Twitter account, said that it was operating correctly. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers levels between 301 and 500 鈥渉azardous鈥 and does not have a scale for levels above 500.
The World Health Organization has standards that judge a score above 500 to be more than 20 times the level of particulate matter in the air deemed safe. Beijing residents online described the air as 鈥減ostapocalyptic,鈥 terrifying,鈥 and 鈥渂eyond belief.鈥
Xinhua, the state news agency, reported last month that air quality in Beijing had improved for 14 years straight.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry official told American diplomats to halt the Twitter feed in 2009. He called it 鈥渘ot only confusing but also insulting鈥 and in indicated that the data could lead to 鈥渟ocial consequences.鈥
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