A resident of a smoggy northern city in China has become the first man in the country to pursue legal action against the government for failing to curb the rampant air pollution.
Haaretz reports that Li Guixin, resident of Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province submitted a complaint to his district court. The complaint asks the Shijiazhuang Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau to "perform its duty to control air pollution according to the law."
According to The Daily Mail, Li also seeks compensation from the agency for the damage caused to citizens by the debilitating smog.
"The reason that I'm proposing administrative compensation is to let every citizen see that amid this haze, we're the real victims," Li said to a local newspaper.
He claims he's spent money on air masks, an air purifier, and even a treadmill to get indoor exercise in December when pollution was particularly harsh, and that he, like others, has suffered economically due to the smog.
It's unclear if the court will accept his case.
China has long been suffering a pollution crisis, particularly in the North, with major cities like the nation's capital Beijing shrouded with thick smog. Government authorities and agencies have vowed to introduce measures to combat the problem, but the problem has only gotten worse.
The government has relied on local municipalities to carry out many measures to fix the problem, but local governments often rely on the subsidies of the smog producing businesses.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
