Air pollution in Hong Kong has reached “serious” and “very high risk” levels across the city, authorities have said, with a recent spate of weak winds preventing the effective dispersal of dangerous airborne chemicals.
The Environmental Protection Department said on Monday that it had logged higher-than-normal air pollution levels in certain areas since Thursday afternoon of last week.
Seventeen of the department’s 18 monitoring stations had reported air pollution levels that posed very high health risks as of 4pm on Monday, with the remaining one recording a serious warning.
Hong Kong uses the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) to grade air pollution on a scale of one to 10, in addition to a special “10+” category.
The range indicates whether the levels pose low, moderate, high, very high or serious health risks.
