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SEOUL - FOUL air hung over much of North-east Asia yesterday.
South Korea closed schools and advised people to stay indoors as a choking pall of sand mixed with toxic dust from China covered most of the country, particularly the southern region.
Dust and sand also hit Japan and Taiwan.
Hong Kong was spared the sand scourge, but instead saw its air pollution index rise to a very high level.
The annual 'yellow dust' spring storms, which originate from China's Gobi Desert before sweeping south to envelop the Korean peninsula and parts of Japan, are blamed for scores of deaths and billions of dollars in damage every year in South Korea.
Seoul issued a yellow dust warning at the weekend, and school districts in southeastern regions yesterday urged parents to keep kindergarten and elementary schoolchildren at home.
'We advised the closure because kindergarten and primary school students have weaker immune systems,' said Busan education official Min Eyu Gi.
Forecasts from China said cold air and little rainfall would lead to more storms from tomorrow through March 11, the Xinhua news agency reported.
South Korean officials also expected the storm to sweep the peninsula more often this year than in the past.
Although toxic clouds seldom hit Taiwan, the skies over Taipei were overcast yesterday, with the government telling people to wear surgical masks and avoid exercising outdoors.
In Japan, car drivers and train operators were asked to be on the alert because the sand storms had greatly reduced visibility.
By yesterday, the main storm had already swept past the southern regions of Okinawa and Kyushu, although they were expected to still experience some sprinkling of sand today.
The sand storms have been increasing in frequency and toxicity over the years because of China's rapid economic growth and have added to increased tensions with South Korea and Japan over recent years.
Japan, China and South Korea have started joint research on the phenomenon.
But Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita has said that whatever the findings, they had been puzzlingly kept as a 'national secret' by China. The minister has reportedly pressed Beijing to reveal more information to the public.
The state-sponsored Korea Environment Institute said the dust kills up to 165 South Koreans a year, mostly the elderly or those with respiratory ailments, and makes as many as 1.8 million ill.
Annual economic damage to South Korea from the storms is estimated at up to 5.5 trillion won (S$8.1 billion), according to the institute.
Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second-biggest maker of memory chips, said it has had to step up its filtration systems and make employees take longer air showers to make sure the dust does not contaminate its production lines and damage chips, which are made using technology that operates on a microscopic level.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong yesterday, the air pollution index rose to the highest level this year, climbing to 157 in the city's Causeway Bay district, according to the Environmental Protection Department.
The 'very high' reading, the second- most severe of five warning levels, means that people with heart or lung conditions should reduce physical exertions and outdoor activities, according to the environmental agency.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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