This week, air pollution in the City of Light spiked to such unpleasant levels that on Wednesday, the Eiffel Tower was obscured by a brown haze. In an effort to quell the crisis, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has called for the national government to impose emergency traffic restrictions that essentially would only allow every other car on the highways to enter the city limits, according to the French newspaper Le Monde. So far, French minister of ecology Segolene Royal has resisted imposing such severe limits, though she might consider it on Monday if the situation doesn’t improve.
In the meantime, cars are banned from traveling at speeds of more than 14 miles per hour, and Parisian commuters are being offered free use of public transportation, in an effort to reduce auto exhaust.
A map of air quality measurement stations in Paris and nearby areas shows that numerous locations have an Air Quality Index (AQI) level of between 151 and 200, at which even normally healthy individuals begin to experience respiratory effects, and people who are more sensitive to air quality have more distress.
Plumelabs.com, a website that offers data on pollution in cities around the world, put the average AQI level in Paris on Friday at 136, far higher than even New Delhi or Beijing.
Part of that worry is the smog also will cause an increase in PM10 particulates -- that is, particles smaller than 10 micrometers across -- which are small enough to get into the lungs and cause damage.
The pollution in Paris is so bad that it’s blowing across the English Channel and causing smog in Wales, BBC News reports.
Read more at Discovery News
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