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雾霾致老外两国分居

James McGregor, Greater China chairman of consultancy Apco, is moving to Shanghai in May after being in Beijing for 25 years and says his wife spends more time in Minnesota in the US Midwest now, partly because of pollution. To provide a clean workplace, his firm installed air filters every 7.6 metres in its Beijing office, about a dozen devices for 30 staff. Even so, employees need more medical leave than 18 months ago.

"There are a lot of sick days, and sometimes our office in Beijing sounds like tuberculosis wards," said McGregor, 60. "People in our office are complaining they don't feel well, they don't have energy."

Levels of PM2.5, the tiny particles posing the greatest risk to human health, were stuck at hazardous levels for a week this year in Beijing and in 2013 peaked at 35 times the WHO's recommended limit. McGregor's firm is able to retain staff because it mostly hires locally. Even so, some clients have said that it's harder luring new talent.

"We're starting to see families not come," McGregor said. "In some cases, people are coming without their families and they are cutting a deal to go home more often."

Shane McNamara, an American executive who runs a 15-person interior design and construction company in China with his wife, said she may move her home base to Hong Kong because of the pollution. His wife, who is Chinese, has reduced work travel because of the bad air, he said.

While McNamara said he would stay on the mainland for business, he has his own health concerns. At his annual check-up at the Mayo Clinic in the US, the doctor told him that "absolutely with that kind of pollution his health would be impacted".