In Beijing or any other cities in China,... It's very complicated ... it's very, very difficult [to solve]

And unfortunately, there might be another big difference between the haze in China and the smog in London.

"The 1952 London Fog led to the 1956 Clean Air Act in the U.K., and it literally solved the problem right away," Zhang said. (The BBC reports that by broad consensus, the act did have a transformative impact on public health.)

But you probably shouldn't hold your breath waiting for China to do the same thing.

"London fog only had to do with coal burning — it is relatively easy to solve the problem," Zhang says. "In Beijing or any other cities in China, you have coal burning, traffic emissions, agriculture. It's very complicated ... it's very, very difficult [to solve]."

A team of atmospheric scientists researching pollution in China say they've cracked a 60-year-old mystery — with research that explains not only the haze over Beijing, but also the remarkably toxic Great Smog of London from 1952.

Research On Chinese Haze Helps Crack Mystery Of London's Deadly 1952 Fog

Atmospheric scientists, pinning down chemical processes behind Beijing's pollution, discovered an explanation for the unusually toxic smog that killed…

NPR.ORG