Couple poses in gas masks and wedding outfits to protest severe smog - PHOTO

In an apparent protest against the heavy pollution, the couple added gas masks to their more traditional wedding outfits before posing for a series of shots around Guomao Bridge in the Chinese capital.Severe pollution has hit much of northern China for the past week, with some readings well over 10 times the internationally accepted safety limit.The smog in Beijing is now so thick that it is blocking sunlight despite recent announced closures or production cuts at 147 of the city's industrial plants.He Dongxian from China Agricultural University’s College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, has even compared its effects to that of a nuclear winter.It has been predicted that if enough nuclear bombs were detonated, so many particles would be thrown into the air that the sun could be blocked out enough to alter the weather and damage the food supply.Dongxian has said that process is now underway in Beijing and six northern provinces.She warned that the toxic smog is hindering photosynthesis of plants and that if it lingers much longer, it could affect food production, according to The Guardian.Dongxian demonstrated recently that seedlings in Beijing were taking over twice as long to grow as those in a lab.‘Every farm is caught in a smog panic,’ she told The South China Morning Post.Pollution has been so severe that aircraft have been grounded, roads closed and tourists numbers hit, while the direct danger posed to human health was underlined by the World Health Organisation, whose readings in Beijing on Tuesday had alarming results.It was reported that the level of PM 2.5 particles, a key measure of pollution because they are small enough to be assimilated into the blood stream, reached 505 micrograms per cubic metre, far higher than the maximum level it considers to be safe, which is 25.China's environment ministry has vowed to 'harshly punish' factories and power plants that contributed to the hazardous smog, official state media reported on Wednesday.Investigations had found that some thermal power plants, cement and steel makers in the northern province of Hebei had failed to halt or curtail production during severely smoggy days despite government orders, state news agency Xinhua quoted the Ministry of Environmental Protection as saying.The smog has led to public displays of dissatisfaction, including people placing anti-pollution face masks on statues.In Beijing, which was shrouded in stinking smog for more than a week, authorities raised the pollution alert to the second-highest 'orange' danger level for the first time on Friday after drawing public ire for its ineffective response.The noxious haze, which can cause lung cancer, abated Wednesday evening, just before China's leaders gather for next week's National People's Congress Meeting.China will introduce measures to combat the smog, including constructing 12 electricity 'channels' to bring in energy from farther away, Xinhua also reported on Wednesday, to reduce the reliance on pollution-creating power plants in northern and eastern China.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az