Heavy air pollution is expected to shroud Beijing and surrounding areas this weekend due to poor weather conditions, according to a report from China's Ministry of Environmental Protection Tuesday.
Luo Yi, head of the ministry's environmental monitoring division, said that air conditions in the northern Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will be favorable on Wednesday and Thursday, but the central part of the region will experience light pollution, while other parts of the region will be heavily polluted. The major pollutant is PM2.5, or particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter.
Luo said that from Friday to Sunday, the air quality will deteriorate, with the central and southern parts of the region the most severely affected. Five cities in North China's Hebei Province, including the provincial capital Shijiazhuang and Baoding, as well as four cities in East China's Shandong Province, will also suffer from heavy smog.
As Beijing prepares to supply heating to its residents, many people are concerned that emissions from coal-fired heating plants during the season may further deteriorate the air quality.
"The main emissions can be attributed to coal-fired heating and raw coal use during the winter season," Yu Jianhua, an official of the Beijing municipal environmental protection bureau, said in November 2014.
According to the National Meteorological Center on Tuesday, smog has covered large parts of North China.
