Pollution in Beijing is now so dense that its effects are comparable to that of a nuclear winter, Chinese scientists have said. 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. This process is now under way in China’s capital city and six northern provinces, according to He Dongxian from China Agricultural University’s College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering. Scroll down for videos . Smog: Cars travel on an overpass amid thick haze in the morning in Beijing . Cars can barely be seen through the smog as they drive along a road in Beijing after a hazardous blanket enveloped the city . Polluted: The smog, pictured today in the Pingshan county of Shijiazhuang, in northern China's Hebei province, has become so severe that it could start to permanently alter the country's weather patterns . Health risk: Pedestrians wear protective masks as they cross a road amidst smog in Beijing . Danger: The smog, pictured today in the iconic Tiananmen Square in Beijing, can cause serious lung problems . 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. Vehicles clog a highway in Beijing, with the buildings around them shrouded in toxic pollution . Buildings are seen shrouded in heavy haze at Qingdao development zone, Shandong province . China's naval chief has found a rather more positive side to the country's awful pollution. The smog, he says, provides an effective barrier against the emerging threat of laser weaponry. Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong, a military expert at the National Defence University, spoke days after it was reported that the US Navy planned to deploy its first laser weapon aboard one of its ships in the Middle East. He said lasers were 'most afraid of smog' because it severely hampers the distance it can be fired. 'Under conditions where there is no smog, a laser weapon can fire (at a range of) 10 kilometres,' he told CCTV’s Haixia Liangan (Cross-Straits) current affairs program, according to www.news.com.au. 'When there’s smog, it’s only one kilometre. What's the point of making this kind of weapon?' Authorities have introduced anti-pollution policies and often pledged to clean up the environment but the problem has not eased. Beijing has been draped in stinking smog for more than a week and in an effort to cut pollution, 147 industrial companies in the capital had cut or suspended production as of Tuesday, according to Xinhua. City residents are growing angry and alarmed. ‘Of course, on days where pollution levels reach or even exceed the scale, we are very concerned and we have to see this as a crisis,’ Bernhard Schwartlander, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in China, told Reuters. ‘There's now clear evidence that, in the long term, high levels of air pollution can actually also cause lung cancer,’ he said. Hebei, a major industrial region surrounding Beijing, has some of the most polluted cities in the world's most populous country. Shijiazhuang routinely recorded ‘beyond index’ measurements of polluting ‘particulate matter’ in early 2013. The China Academy of Sciences identified the province as a major source of noxious smog that hung over Beijing a year ago. The government said in an action plan . for Hebei in September that it would ban new projects in certain . industries, close outdated steel and cement facilities and slash coal . use. The . province has promised to cut total steel capacity by 86 million tonnes, . about 40 percent of last year's production, by 2020. Official data . suggests that is starting to happen. New threat: A laser weapon aboard the destroyer USS Dewey in San Diego in this picture from 2012 . Star Wars weaponry: A high-speed camera captures the first full-energy shots from an electromagnetic launcher which the U.S. Navy plans to deploy on one of its ships this year . Chinese Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong said lasers were 'most afraid of smog' because it severely hampers the distance it can be fired . Meanwhile, . a man in a smog-ridden northern city has become the first person in . China to sue the government for failing to curb air pollution. Li . Guixin, a resident of Shijiazhuang, capital of the northern province of . Hebei, submitted his complaint to a district court asking the city's . Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau to ‘perform its duty to . control air pollution according to the law’, the Yanzhao Metropolis . Daily said. The Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences . recently ranked Beijing second worst in terms of living environment . among 40 major cities around the world and said it was 'barely suitable' for living.
Pollution has grounded aircraft, closed roads and hit tourism in China .
The food supply could be affected as the smog blocks sunlight .
China Agricultural University showed that seedlings are struggling to grow .
The smog is having the same effect as that predicted from nuclear war .
Yet China's naval chief claimed it has a plus side - defence from US lasers .
Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong said weapons' range cut from 10km to 1km .
Pollution in Beijing is now so dense that its effects are comparable to that of a nuclear winter, Chinese scientists have said. 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. This process is now under way in China’s capital city and six northern provinces, according to He Dongxian from China Agricultural University’s College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering. Scroll down for videos . Smog: Cars travel on an overpass amid thick haze in the morning in Beijing . Cars can barely be seen through the smog as they drive along a road in Beijing after a hazardous blanket enveloped the city . Polluted: The smog, pictured today in the Pingshan county of Shijiazhuang, in northern China's Hebei province, has become so severe that it could start to permanently alter the country's weather patterns . Health risk: Pedestrians wear protective masks as they cross a road amidst smog in Beijing . Danger: The smog, pictured today in the iconic Tiananmen Square in Beijing, can cause serious lung problems . 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. Vehicles clog a highway in Beijing, with the buildings around them shrouded in toxic pollution . Buildings are seen shrouded in heavy haze at Qingdao development zone, Shandong province . China's naval chief has found a rather more positive side to the country's awful pollution. The smog, he says, provides an effective barrier against the emerging threat of laser weaponry. Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong, a military expert at the National Defence University, spoke days after it was reported that the US Navy planned to deploy its first laser weapon aboard one of its ships in the Middle East. He said lasers were 'most afraid of smog' because it severely hampers the distance it can be fired. 'Under conditions where there is no smog, a laser weapon can fire (at a range of) 10 kilometres,' he told CCTV’s Haixia Liangan (Cross-Straits) current affairs program, according to www.news.com.au. 'When there’s smog, it’s only one kilometre. What's the point of making this kind of weapon?' Authorities have introduced anti-pollution policies and often pledged to clean up the environment but the problem has not eased. Beijing has been draped in stinking smog for more than a week and in an effort to cut pollution, 147 industrial companies in the capital had cut or suspended production as of Tuesday, according to Xinhua. City residents are growing angry and alarmed. ‘Of course, on days where pollution levels reach or even exceed the scale, we are very concerned and we have to see this as a crisis,’ Bernhard Schwartlander, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in China, told Reuters. ‘There's now clear evidence that, in the long term, high levels of air pollution can actually also cause lung cancer,’ he said. Hebei, a major industrial region surrounding Beijing, has some of the most polluted cities in the world's most populous country. Shijiazhuang routinely recorded ‘beyond index’ measurements of polluting ‘particulate matter’ in early 2013. The China Academy of Sciences identified the province as a major source of noxious smog that hung over Beijing a year ago. The government said in an action plan . for Hebei in September that it would ban new projects in certain . industries, close outdated steel and cement facilities and slash coal . use. The . province has promised to cut total steel capacity by 86 million tonnes, . about 40 percent of last year's production, by 2020. Official data . suggests that is starting to happen. New threat: A laser weapon aboard the destroyer USS Dewey in San Diego in this picture from 2012 . Star Wars weaponry: A high-speed camera captures the first full-energy shots from an electromagnetic launcher which the U.S. Navy plans to deploy on one of its ships this year . Chinese Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong said lasers were 'most afraid of smog' because it severely hampers the distance it can be fired . Meanwhile, . a man in a smog-ridden northern city has become the first person in . China to sue the government for failing to curb air pollution. Li . Guixin, a resident of Shijiazhuang, capital of the northern province of . Hebei, submitted his complaint to a district court asking the city's . Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau to ‘perform its duty to . control air pollution according to the law’, the Yanzhao Metropolis . Daily said. The Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences . recently ranked Beijing second worst in terms of living environment . among 40 major cities around the world and said it was 'barely suitable' for living.
effects are comparable to that of a nuclear the air that the sun could be blocked out enough to alter the weather and damage the food supply. Dongxian from China Agricultural University’s Polluted: The smog, pictured today in the smog is hindering photosynthesis of plants and Dongxian demonstrated recently that seedlings in Pollution has been so severe that aircraft have been grounded, roads closed and tourists numbers Shandong province . China's naval chief has found Chinese Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong said lasers