Beijing pollution from cars, construction sites

BEIJING: Emissions from cars and aircraft and construction dust account for most of Beijing’s pollution, a new government-sponsored survey has said.

“Currently, mobile sources, including automobiles, boats and planes are the largest contributor for locally generated PM2.5 particulate matter that poses health dangers,” the China Daily quoted the survey as saying.

“The research has also found dust kicked up from roads and construction sites…to be on the rise. The proportion of its PM2.5 contribution increased from 14.3% in 2013 to 16% last year,” it added.

The survey revealed that in 2017, 45% of PM2.5 was from vehicles, and diesel-powered trucks were the worst offenders.

The government’s efforts to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy have shown some results.

“The research found…that the contribution from coal consumption decreased from about 22% to only 3% thanks to the shift in the region from bulk coal to clean energy sources for winter heating,” the survey said.

The conclusions were based on data from Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center, the Peking and Tsinghua universities and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Outside pollutants too play a major part in sullying Beijing’s air. “The worse the air pollution in Beijing is, the bigger the contribution from outside pollutants, the latest research found. When the capital has been hit with heavy pollution, the proportion from outside pollutants went up by about 55 to 75%,” the newspaper reported.