It's day five of what has turned into the worst stretch of air pollution in Beijing on record and judging from the view from our office window as I write this there appears to be no end in sight (or, weather permitting, at least until the winds pick up tomorrow).

State media has made much of Beijing's implementation of its "emergency response plan for hazardous pollution" (which limits traffic and construction on high pollution days) for the first time ever on Sunday - which is all well and good, but considering this alarming statement in The New Yorker's Beijing-based correspondent Evan Osnos's latest blog, these reactive measures are simply not enough to combat the capital's pollution at this point:

For me, the clearest technical measure of the severity came from an environmental-law expert who reported that the closest the United States has ever come to measurements like this was in the midst of forest fires—and Beijing’s level this weekend was far higher than that.

We all know that Beijing's noxious air is filled with nasty carcinogens that are bad for you, but Greenpeace has revealed just how bad the air we breathe has become.

The international environmental advocacy group recruited 16 volunteers to wear a "personal pollution sampler" for a few days each this past January and February (during the "Airpocalypse") and found an alarming cocktail of toxic particles:

The first thing we realized when we started the research was that the sampler actually enables you to see the pollution. The filters reveal the amount of toxic particles that enter your lungs during a single day in Beijing.

Then we got the results from the lab. Arsenic, mercury, lead, selenium... a neurotoxic and cancer-causing cocktail. The results are not pretty, and reveal clues to the reasons behind China’s lung cancer epidemic. The WHO recently released the results of a massive research project into what is making us sick, pointing out air pollution as the biggest environmental health risk in the world. The research estimated that 20% of lung cancer cases in China are caused by outdoor air pollution.

If Beijing's blue skies lulled you into a false sense of serenity, wake up. Like a back-handed bitch-slap, the smog is back and here to stay (for now). According to the China Daily:

 The density of PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers that can harm the heart and lungs, reached 400 micrograms per cubic meter early on Monday, well above national and international standards, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said. The center said due to rising temperatures, lack of wind and other unfavorable conditions, the pollution is unlikely to disperse in the next few days.

 

We've seen (and breathed) far worse than today's bad air, but it's never a good feeling to go from this:

Self-described “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Gamer” Frank Yu  (@FrankYu) came to Beijing in 2004 “for the duck” and “stayed for the chuan’r.” In addition to being co-founder and CEO of Kwestr , Beijing tech maven Frank is also an avid Instagrammer (follow him at mkultra00 – with two zeroes at the end) and co-organizer of the Instagramers Beijing group.

Earlier this week we put Beijing's newest anti-air pollution technology to the test and posted our impressions here. Read on for Infipure co-founder Francis Law's response to our feedback.