Beijing Issues Highest Air Pollution Alert
VAUSE: In Beijing, schools and factories are closed. Half the city's cars are banned from the roads. These are some of the measures being enforced after the government issued its first ever red alert, that is the highest air pollution warning. CNN's Matt Rivers joins us now live from Beijing with the very latest. It is, what, 20 past 2:00 there on a Tuesday afternoon. So, Matt, how are those pollution controls working out?</s>MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As you can see behind me, not that well so far. And it really is making life more difficult for people here in Beijing, both to breathe the air and to deal with those restrictions. Many people have taken to social media to vent their frustrations, but we recently spoke to one man who found a more alternative way to express his displeasure.</s>RIVERS (voice-over): This is what it looks like when you vacuum air pollution. And this is what it looks like when you use the tiny toxic particles you collect to help make a brick. The man behind it is an artist called Brother Nut.</s>BROTHER NUT, ARTIST (Through Translator): Some people think this is ridiculous to vacuum dust in the air.</s>RIVERS: But he is doing it to make a point about China's air quality. So he spent 100 days walking the streets of Beijing, towing his vacuum, sucking up the pollution Beijingers breathe in. We saw him on a day with blue skies but most of his work comes from days that look like this. He collected over 100 grams of pollution, much of it made up of small particles, some 30 times smaller than a strand of human hair.</s>DR. TRISTAN EVELY, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL SOS: They can go right inside our lungs, right into the blood stream.</s>RIVERS: Doctor Tristan Evely is a medical director for International SOS and says the long-term effects of breathing in air this polluted are deadly.</s>EVELY: Asthma, obstructed air ways disease, and also even things like heart attacks because the pollution can trigger that, as well.</s>RIVERS: Air pollution can be made from everything from soot to heavy metals, like arsenic and lead, likely now a part of Brother Nut's pollution brick. Here is a picture of him pouring the dust into a brick mold.</s>BROTHER NUT (Through Translator): Air pollution is a problem for everyone. And now we are being deprived of our right to breathe fresh air.</s>RIVERS: His art project went viral, perhaps not surprising in a city where 21 million people have to deal with pollution every day.</s>RIVERS: And that will likely be the topic of conversation for people here in Beijing for several days to come. This heavy, heavy smog is not expected to clear out of the area until Thursday midday at the earliest -- John.</s>VAUSE: Yes, they could get enough bricks to build another great wall. Matt, thank you for that. Matt Rivers, live in Beijing. Let's go to our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. He's standing by at the CNN Weather Center with more details on these toxic conditions. So, Pedram, is there any particular reason why it is more toxic than usual in Beijing?</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, it always comes down to coal. We know two-thirds of the energy consumption is from coal. Of course this time of year the cold air. The weather pattern actually very stagnant so it's trapping all the pollutants, the particulates. The air quality index up at 367. That's well into the hazardous category. Some 10 to 15 times of what is considered fit to breathe by the World Health Organization. And again, you look at these numbers, study after studies have been done. We know about 17 percent of fatalities per year in China occur because of air quality. It's about 1.6 million people in the country losing their lives prematurely because of air quality. About five and a half year shorter life expectancy believe it or not on the northern tier of the country than in the southern tier of the country. And we know the industry has a lot to do with it, the coal- powered factories and power plants across this region. But see this area? That's where the smog is the highest. That's an area that is roughly 500,000 square kilometers of land, the size of the state of California and the state of Tennessee combined. That is the size of the plant we're talking about. So certainly not just related to Beijing, but much expansive over region. And we have an inversion set up with the weather pattern, meaning we have warmer air aloft, cooler, more dense air sits right at the surface so we have the pollutants that are trapped at the surface, where millions of people reside, and this really makes it for a disastrous scenario. And again this kind of shows you what we're talking about with two-thirds of the energy consumption coming in from coal, that leads to what we have with the highest particulates. And look at this, U.S. Department of State, fascinating statistics. Since January 1st of 2008, only 2 percent of all days in Beijing have been considered fit to breathe. Work your way to the bottom of the screen, the unhealthy to beyond unhealthy, that are hazardous, more than 70 percent of the days across Beijing since the 1st of January in 2008, have been considered unhealthy. And another way to look at it. We did the math on this, John. Since January 1st, 2008, there's been 2,899 days. Only 58 days in Beijing, and all that time were 2 percent are considered healthy with more than 2,000 of them being unhealthy, and the remainder unhealthy for sensitive groups. So it kind of shows you what we're talking about, with the significant and the consistent pattern of unfit air across this part of the world -- John.</s>VAUSE: That's what you call room for improvement, Pedram. Thank you.</s>JAVAHERI: A lot of room. Yes.</s>VAUSE: Next here on CNN NEWSROOM L.A., Donald Trump's call to stop Muslims entering the U.S. has sparked a lot of outrage, but not so from his supporters. We'll hear from them up next.</s>RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump is now saying Muslims should not be allowed to enter this country until the U.S. figures out what's going on. Do you agree with that?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do.</s>KAYE: Why?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want them here.