It’s a never-ending debate in Asia -- whose air quality is worse, China’s or India’s? A new study by Greenpeace released Monday is trying to answer that question. Analysts looked at NASA satellite images and found that measurements of particulate matter -- the microscopic particles that invade your lungs and can cause cancer and heart disease -- improved impressively in China over the past few years while air quality in India has worsened, with 2015 ranking as India’s most polluted year on record. The satellite images showed that the levels of PM2.5 particles decreased by 17 percent in China from 2010 to 2015 and 15 percent in the United States while rising 13 percent in India, the study found.

BEIJING - The first red alert over air pollution in the Chinese capital almost brought this city to a standstill in December, with schools shut, construction halted and driving restricted. Now, in a swift policy shift, Beijing plans to issue a red alert based on higher thresholds, despite government pledges to better address the toxic air. A red alert, the highest level of a four-tier warning system, will be issued if the daily average air quality index is forecast to exceed 500 for one day, 300 for two days or 200 for four days, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported on Sunday, quoting Beijing’s environmental agency. The new standards will take effect before the end of March, it said. The air