China tells air quality app to stop reporting its high pollution readings
An air quality monitoring app has been told by Chinese authorities to stop displaying pollution levels that exceed an official cutoff point.
An environmental protection bureau ordered China's Air Matters to cap its app's maximum air quality index (AQI) reading at 500, according to a report by media outlet Sixth Tone.
The AQI, which is used by China to measure air pollution, is officially limited at 500.
An AQI of 500 for a 24-hour period triggers a red alert warning, which means schools and industries have to close, and heavy vehicles are ordered off the road.
One of the app's co-founders had reportedly updated it to allow the AQI reading to go above the official cutoff point.
“Our users wanted to know more about the exact number,” Wang Jun had said.
"Our users wanted to know the exact number."
An official from China’s provincial environment protection bureau reportedly contacted Wang a day after the update was released, asking the app company to "set the maximum numerical value back." Wang added that his team later reversed the update.
The app delivers air pollution data on over 50 countries from more than 10,000 monitoring sites. China has for weeks been plagued by an “airpocalypse”, with as many as 21 cities around China on red alert. Handan, a steel production city near Beijing, had earlier last year recorded an AQI of 780 according to Greenpeace.
Yvette is a Viral Content Reporter at Mashable Asia. She was previously reporting for BBC's Singapore bureau and Channel NewsAsia.
