"Greyjing" - Story Quotes Public Health Official: Lung Cancer Rates Up 60% In Decade, Smoking Same

[hatrack]

With its parks, centuries-old palaces, history and culture, Beijing should be one of the more pleasant capitals of the world. Instead, it's considered among the worst to live in because of chronic air pollution. Lung cancer rates are rising among the 20 million residents of China's capital, health officials say. For many multinational companies, Beijing is considered a hardship posting and, despite the extra allowances that classification brings, some executives are leaving.

On some days, Beijing is enveloped in a brownish-grey smog, so thick it gets indoors, stings the eyes and darkens the sky in the middle of the day. Smoke from factories and heating plants, winds blowing in from the Gobi Desert and fumes from millions of vehicles can combine to blanket the city in this pungent shroud for days. English-speaking residents sometimes call the city "Greyjing" or "Beige-jing".

Some foreigners plan their daily events around the U.S. Embassy's Twitter feed on Beijing's air quality (twitter.com/beijingair), which has hourly posts. "On a bad day, you're going to change your plans," said American Chauvon Venick, who moved to Beijing from Los Angeles with her lawyer husband and young daughter earlier this year.

EDIT

Last year, the state-run China Daily quoted a Beijing health official as saying the lung cancer rate in the city had increased by 60 percent during the past decade, even though the smoking rate during the period had not seen an apparent rise.

EDIT

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/29/uk-china-pollution-idUKBRE86S0R520120729

[pipoman]

1. Maybe they're putting the same

shit in their cigarettes as they are putting in chicken dog treats?