Most cities won't pass muster on new air standard
By Yang Jian |
March 3, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SOME two-thirds of Chinese cities will fail to reach stricter air-quality standards passed by the State Council, the country's Cabinet, though the standards are still at "low level" in the world, a senior official of the country's environment protection authority said yesterday.
"China is facing an increasingly severe challenge to improve the air quality and still has a long way to go to achieve the targets set by the World Health Organization," Wu Xiaoqing, vice minister of environment protection, told a press conference.
The State Council passed the new air-quality standards on Wednesday that include indices for the concentration of PM2.5, or fine particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter, and ozone (O3) over a period of eight hours. The Ambient Air Quality Standards will be carried out step by step in some pilot cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, starting this year and will cover all areas of the country in 2016, said Wu.
The government revised its air-quality standards in response to public pressure over pollution and the lack of thorough information about air quality in China. Demands in Beijing for greater government accountability on air quality were fueled in recent months in part by a Twitter feed set up by the US Embassy in Beijing giving hourly updates on air quality as measured on the facility's roof. The new standards have stricter standards on PM10, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other major pollutants compared with the old standards.
China will spend 2 billion yuan (US$318 million) at the start and add 100 million yuan each year to arrange for 1,500 stations across the country to monitor the PM2.5, said Wu.
The new standards still meet only the World Health Organization's most basic standard for developing countries, Wu said.
"China may be geared to international levels with the issuing of the new standards, but only the low international level," he said.
The new Chinese standards require concentrations of fine particulate matter called PM2.5 to be kept below daily averages of 75 micrograms per cubic meter, more than twice as lenient as the US Environmental Protection Agency's standard of 35.
Some Chinese cities tend to have much higher amounts than that, and the US Embassy in Beijing monitoring showed a 24-hour average in the capital of 188.5 yesterday, a reading called "very unhealthy."
This year, monitoring of PM2.5 and O3 will be conducted in four municipalities, 27 provincial capitals and three key regions - east China's Yangtze River Delta region, south China's Pearl River Delta region, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area in the north, according to the ministry.
The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau has said it would release figures on the amount of PM2.5 particles in the air starting on June 1, followed by Beijing around September.
Mayor Han Zheng said Shanghai has finished preparation and applied to the ministry for being included the first batch of cities announcing the PM2.5 measurement to the public.
However, Shanghai will also see a 10 to 15 percent drop on the number of days with so-called excellent or good air quality with the more stringent measurement in June, the city's environmental authorities said. Shanghai has failed to meet the proposed PM2.5 air quality standard for the past five years.
PM2.5 affects air quality and visibility and poses major health risks as the particles are small enough to lodge deep in the lungs and even enter the bloodstream, leading to some premature deaths and long-term diseases.
Wu said his ministry is working on a five-year plan for air pollution prevention and control in key regions, aiming to reduce the amount of fine particles in the air by strengthening controls over industrial waste treatment and auto emissions.
"China is facing an increasingly severe challenge to improve the air quality and still has a long way to go to achieve the targets set by the World Health Organization," Wu Xiaoqing, vice minister of environment protection, told a press conference.
The State Council passed the new air-quality standards on Wednesday that include indices for the concentration of PM2.5, or fine particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter, and ozone (O3) over a period of eight hours. The Ambient Air Quality Standards will be carried out step by step in some pilot cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, starting this year and will cover all areas of the country in 2016, said Wu.
The government revised its air-quality standards in response to public pressure over pollution and the lack of thorough information about air quality in China. Demands in Beijing for greater government accountability on air quality were fueled in recent months in part by a Twitter feed set up by the US Embassy in Beijing giving hourly updates on air quality as measured on the facility's roof. The new standards have stricter standards on PM10, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other major pollutants compared with the old standards.
China will spend 2 billion yuan (US$318 million) at the start and add 100 million yuan each year to arrange for 1,500 stations across the country to monitor the PM2.5, said Wu.
The new standards still meet only the World Health Organization's most basic standard for developing countries, Wu said.
"China may be geared to international levels with the issuing of the new standards, but only the low international level," he said.
The new Chinese standards require concentrations of fine particulate matter called PM2.5 to be kept below daily averages of 75 micrograms per cubic meter, more than twice as lenient as the US Environmental Protection Agency's standard of 35.
Some Chinese cities tend to have much higher amounts than that, and the US Embassy in Beijing monitoring showed a 24-hour average in the capital of 188.5 yesterday, a reading called "very unhealthy."
This year, monitoring of PM2.5 and O3 will be conducted in four municipalities, 27 provincial capitals and three key regions - east China's Yangtze River Delta region, south China's Pearl River Delta region, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area in the north, according to the ministry.
The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau has said it would release figures on the amount of PM2.5 particles in the air starting on June 1, followed by Beijing around September.
Mayor Han Zheng said Shanghai has finished preparation and applied to the ministry for being included the first batch of cities announcing the PM2.5 measurement to the public.
However, Shanghai will also see a 10 to 15 percent drop on the number of days with so-called excellent or good air quality with the more stringent measurement in June, the city's environmental authorities said. Shanghai has failed to meet the proposed PM2.5 air quality standard for the past five years.
PM2.5 affects air quality and visibility and poses major health risks as the particles are small enough to lodge deep in the lungs and even enter the bloodstream, leading to some premature deaths and long-term diseases.
Wu said his ministry is working on a five-year plan for air pollution prevention and control in key regions, aiming to reduce the amount of fine particles in the air by strengthening controls over industrial waste treatment and auto emissions.
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