Of course you must remember when the Chinese government began publishing air quality figures they only did so because the American embassy was publishing them on line. Once the Chinese followed the Americans, the Americans then moved to the smaller particulates measurements

This is a great link
http://aqicn.org/map/europe/#@g/41.1642/5.3613/4z

I wasn't expressing any concerns about the nytimes, but since you ask - as with many newspapers they will publish any alarmist story they can get hold of or are paid to publish. No surprises there. As for yourself - if you want to play an expert in Eastern European problems and their solutions you need to be reading Eastern European newspapers at least in two different languages apart from English, and from opposite sides of the political spectrum to find out what is really going on. Then we may listen to your advice. At the moment your posts sound too much like rants from the Daily Mail comments sections which I occasionally read for a few laughs on a boring day at the office. I had to double check whether I was still on fodors...

It is ok to say sorry....

Seems the air in this thread is getting a little too polluted too!