Smog Alert: Vehicles Barred in Ruhr Valley

Police manned barriers sealing off the downtown areas of 12 cities in West Germany’s heavily populated Ruhr Valley on Saturday as a smog alert banning private vehicles from the streets remained in effect.

The Stage 2 alarm, restricting traffic in the peak morning and afternoon hours, covered the entire Ruhr district, home of the country’s heavy “smokestack” industries.

A maximum Stage 3 alert, banning all non-essential vehicles and closing factories emitting pollutants, was lifted from the western Ruhr after air quality improved slightly.

But state health officials in North Rhine-Westphalia quoted the weather office in Essen as saying the smog would linger until a front of low pressure coming in from the Atlantic blows cleaner air into the valley late today.

The normally bustling streets of Essen, Duisburg, Muelheim and Dortmund were almost devoid of private vehicle traffic Saturday. Drugstores reported a run on face masks, and the sale of nose and eye medication was up sharply.