The following blog written by a doctor who lives in Beijing talks about pollution and health:
http://www.myhealthbeijing.com/categ...ess/pollution/

I think there are some things you can do to minimise the health impacts:
1. Stay indoors where possible and buy an air cleaning machine with a HEPA filter.
2. When outdoors wear a mask that can filter out fine particles (see http://www.myhealthbeijing.com/2010/...hich-are-best/)

The site above has an article suggesting that even on the worst days, breathing in the air is equivalent to smoking less than one cigarette, which just shows how horribly bad for the health smoking is: http://www.myhealthbeijing.com/2011/...disappointing/