The air quality of Mongolia has become five times worse than that of Beijing. Mongolia, which recently faced its worst smog of the year, has almost eighty times the recommended fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The level of the fine particulate matter in the air peaked at 1,985 micrograms a cubic meter on December 16 in the capital's Bayankhoshuu district. While the WHO recommends PM2.5 exposure of no more than 25 micrograms over 24 hours, the daily average settled at 1,071 micrograms that day.
In Beijing, officials issued the year's first red alert and ordered 1,200 factories to close or cut output. Earlier this week, due to an increase of the PM2.5 levels beyond 400 in the capital, Chinese officials canceled 351 flight departures because of limited visibility. The highest daily average in the past week was registered at 378, according to the China National Environment Monitoring Center.
Prime Minister Erdenebat Jargaltulga announced, on Friday, that the tariff would be completely eliminated by January 1 after first cutting the nighttime electricity tariff by 50 percent, encouraging residents to heat their homes with electric heaters instead of raw coal or other toxic flammable material. He also proposed to build apartments so that makeshift housing can be replaced from China, to encourage electric heating, and to reduce poverty to slow migration to the capital, Bloomberg reported.
Additionally, Defense Minister Bat-Erdene Badmaanyambuu announced, on Wednesday, that a fifty-bed wing of Ulaanbaatar's military hospital will be opened up for children with pneumonia, as city hospitals were not able to take them in due to capacity being full, according to a statement on the government's website.
People have been sharing pictures of smog on social media, encouraging methods of protection and calling on the government to do more to protect citizens. On Friday, many Mongolians changed their profile pictures on Facebook to show themselves wearing air pollution masks as a sign of protest.
Also, a crowdfunding campaign to purchase 100 air purifiers for hospitals and schools raised more than $1,400 in five days.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned of an impending crisis if the smog levels are not reduced, calling children under the age of five and those still in the womb the most vulnerable.
According to a 2013 study by Canada's Simon Fraser University, 10 percent of deaths in Ulaanbaatar were related to complications from air pollution.
Meanwhile, in Beijing, the government lifted its pollution warning on Thursday after the situation improved.