School children in Pakistan's second-largest city Lahore are forbidden to exercise outdoors until January due to toxic smog levels, local authorities announce. Even outdoor school activities are prohibited until January 31.
School days will also be shortened by about an hour in the morning to get children to avoid traveling during the most intense air pollution periods.
The megacity Lahore is notorious for its smog, which settles like a lid over the 14 million inhabitants every winter.
According to the UN Children's Fund Unicef, nearly 600 million children in South Asia are exposed to high levels of air pollution.
About half of all cases where children die from pneumonia are linked to dirty air, according to Unicef.
