Smoggy days this year the highest since 1961
Print Edition
The 31 provincial regions on China’s mainland have reported 4.7 smoggy days on average so far this year, the highest since 1961, a meteorologist with the China Meteorological Administration said yesterday.
Chen Zhenlin, head of the Department of Emergency Response, Disaster Mitigation and Public Services under the CMA, told reporters that the number was 2.3 days higher than that of the same period over several decades.
Of the 31 regions, Heilongjiang and Liaoning in northeast China, Hebei, Shanxi and Tianjin that are close to Beijing in north China, Anhui, Shandong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu in the east and the central provinces of Henan, Hunan and Hubei, as well as Chongqing City in the southwest had reported the highest number of smoggy days in about half a century.
In October, central and eastern Chinese regions were frequently shrouded in smog.
Ten to 15 smoggy days were recorded by some regions, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Sichuan, Hunan and Guangdong. Some areas in Shanxi, Henan and Jiangsu reported a total of 15 to 20 smoggy days last month.
Chen said the northern areas, including Beijing and Hebei Province, central and east China along the Yellow, Huaihe and Yangtze rivers as well as the southwestern Sichuan Province would still be plagued by smog in the next few days.
Dense smog has periodically shrouded major cities in north China in recent years, fueling increasing public discontent.
Zhou Bing, a national climate expert, attributed the recent bouts of smoggy days in the northern areas to lack of rain and static air circulation.
A national plan to combat airborne pollution was unveiled on September 12 this year. It set various targets, for instance requiring all 338 prefecture-level cities to start monitoring six airborne pollutants, including PM2.5, and to release the readings by the end of 2015.
PM2.5 refers to airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter.
Beijing, which witnessed frequent prolonged smog last winter, adopted an emergency program to handle air pollution on October 22. Cars with odd and even license plates will be allowed on roads on alternate days and schools will close when a red air alert — the highest — is issued.
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