New controls mean fewer fireworks at Spring Festival
Print Edition
FIREWORK sales in Shanghai are expected to fall this year as local authorities issued fewer vendor certificates, officials said yesterday.
The Shanghai Fire Control Bureau issued about 700 certificates to vendors, most of them grocery stores and supermarkets, which is about 300 fewer than normal, it said.
The number of fireworks available for sale has also been halved from last year to 150,000 boxes, it said.
Vendors are required to obtain permits to sell fireworks and can open for business no more than two weeks before the Chinese New Year, which this year falls on February 19.
For the first time this year, the two-week restriction applies also to vendors in suburban areas, said Chen Liuyi, an official from the Putuo District fire brigade.
In the past, vendors in suburban areas were allowed to sell fireworks all year round.
Though a key part of the Spring Festival, fireworks create smog and release harmful substances.
The number of fireworks sold has been falling in recent years as the public becomes more aware of the problem of air pollution.
A vendor in Putuo said he expects to sell about 200,000 yuan (US$32,000) worth of fireworks this year, down from 1 million yuan’s worth last year.
People light fireworks and firecrackers on Chinese New Year’s Eve and at midnight on the fourth day of the New Year to welcome the God of Fortune.
Street cleaners last year cleaned up 1,400 tons of related debris.
Meanwhile, the city’s quality control watchdog said yesterday that about a third of the fireworks it tested were substandard.
All of them were sold by the state-owned Shanghai Jinqilin Fireworks Co, the city’s only authorized dealer, the Shanghai Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau said.
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