Shanghai air pollution warnings continue

Shanghai alerted children and the elderly to stay inside on Thursday again as pollutants surged to more than 15 times World Health Organization guidelines, Bloomberg reports.

The city’s environmental monitoring center said the level of PM 2.5 pollutants reached 395.7 micrograms per cubic meter, while the WHO recommends no more than 25 over a 24-hour period.

“Pollutants are likely to move from the north to the Yangtze Delta region because of atmospheric circulation,” Li Shuo, a Beijing-based policy officer at Greenpeace, said by phone today. The Yangtze Delta comprises Shanghai and the neighboring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday that China’s Cabinet listed worsening air pollution among the coming challenges the country faces in a report to the legislature.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy visited Shanghai earlier this month amid the record air pollution. McCarthy met with Chinese officials to discuss air pollution and climate change policies.