Cities across smog-ridden northern China went about business more or less as usual on Wednesday, undercutting efforts in Beijing to rein in its latest spell of carcinogenic haze to hit the country’s capital, The New York Times reported. While the Beijing municipal government issued its first air pollution “red alert,” closing schools and restricting car use, nearby cities like Anyang, Handan and Shijiazhuang enacted much milder emergency plans–or none at all. Since most of the pollution that regularly plagues Beijing comes from coal-burning factories in surrounding provinces like Hebei and Henan, those lax policies mean that the capital’s emergency measures did little to improve air quality.