Beijing environment official says major pollutants down in capital

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Major pollutants in Beijing are down and air quality in the city has improved for a ninth consecutive year, an environment official said at a news conference here on Wednesday.

Between 1998 and 2007, the amount of sulphur dioxide in the capital's air was down 60.8 percent, while carbon monoxide was cut39.4 percent. Nitrogen dioxide was reduced 10.8 percent and particles were down 17.8 percent, said Du Shaozhong, the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau deputy head, quoting the latest statistics.

The number of days that met the "blue sky" standard had increased from 100 to 246 during the period and the figure is expected to rise to 256 this year, he told reporters.

Apart from the particles, Du said the other indices had met national standards. "Particles and dust at construction sites, which cover about 100 million square meters in Beijing, are a major source of pollution," he said.

"We have taken action in the past few phases, but we will still stiffen requirements for sites that produce dust. We also need businesses to discipline themselves to follow environmental rules, and the public to help supervise."

China adopted the air quality standards, which were introduced by the World Health Organization to developing countries, in 2005,under which the daily density of inhalable particles should not exceed 150 micrograms per cubic meter.

Hitting back at reports that Beijing environment staff sampled areas where pollution was not serious to make the statistics look good, Du defended said "the improvement of Beijing's air quality is an indisputable fact". He denounced the reports as "untrue and distorting the true picture".

He said all environment statistics are available at the bureau's website for reference.

In further attempts to remove dirty air, Beijing would implement more stringent environmental standards to reduce pollutants in the coming months ahead of the August Olympics.

Du outlined a new set of measures this year to contain air pollution. This included removing 2,300 cars, 1,500 buses and 2,000 cabs that failed to meet emission standards.

The bureau will continue to target industrial emissions by polluting businesses such as chemical, metallurgy and cement manufacturers, and require residents to contribute to emission-cutting by switching from coal to electricity.

New goals include cutting pollutants by another 50,000 tons this year, Du said.

In addition, the municipal government planned to set up an expert team to join the monitoring of air quality in Beijing and its five polluting neighbors, Du told Xinhua.

The experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Peking University and the Tsinghua University would be responsible for identifying exactly how much vehicles, coal use and climate contributed to the air pollution.

"The team will provide us with a more scientific basis for air pollution control and we will release their monitoring results daily," said Yu Jianhua, head of Beijing environmental protection and monitoring center.

As the host of the summer Olympiad, Beijing has been using its resources to tackle air pollution, cited by many as a concern for the Games.

Worries and complaints cloud the Beijing Olympics organizers. Some marathon athletes fear "Beijing's poor air quality" will impair their performance, and some countries are setting up pre-Olympic training camps in neighboring Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Beijing has spent more than 120 billion yuan (16.8 billion U.S. dollars) to contain air pollution since 1998. In the past two years, the city has expanded public transport, tested a temporary traffic ban and relocated polluting factories.

Beijing's neighbouring municipality Tianjin, the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are lending a hand to the capital to attain anti-pollution goals. Work in these areas include closing major polluters, removing outmoded cabs and reconditioning gas stations to capture harmful chemicals.

"The cooperative efforts by the five provinces and municipalities have been smooth," said Wang Jian, director of the Air and Noise Pollution Control department at the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), who was helping answer questions at the conference.

Du stressed the improving air quality required long-lasting and consistent efforts. "We have fought for the goal (of better air quality) for almost 10 years, and will continue our efforts in this path."

He didn't disclose a detailed environmental agenda for the Games period but said that measures would include partial motor vehicle bans, limiting polluting procedures at construction sites and ordering heavily-polluting factories to cut emissions or discharges.

He assured the audience that Beijing would fulfill the environmental commitment it made when bidding for the Games.

"Better air circulation and ample rainfall, which are usually seen in the summer, will help dissipate pollutants," he added.

"Under normal meteorological conditions, air quality during the Olympics will meet the national and World Health Organization (WHO) standards," Du said, stressing that "there is not much room for doubt".

Hu Fei, a researcher with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, however, warned that the government should prepare for a long and tough fight against air pollution, citing inhalable particles and ozone remain major obstacles to the "Green Olympics" goal.

It might not be a big problem to improve Beijing's air quality during the Games as the weather in August was usually cooperative and the government could take measures to temporarily close down the polluters and impose traffic controls, said Hu.

"However, this is an expedient and by no means a permanent measure. What if some extreme weather event happened during the Games? It may turn the years of effort into nothing," he said. "Beijing should work hard to reduce the density of inhalable particles and ozone to guarantee a long-term effect."