Beijing sees PM2.5 drop in first five months

Beijing saw a drop in air pollution in the first five months of the year due to tougher inspections of sources of pollution, the environmental watchdog said.

The level of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter that can be hazardous to health — declined by 18.3 percent compared with the same period last year, the capital’s environmental protection bureau said on Thursday. The average PM2.5 concentration from January to May was 58 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

But in May, the average PM2.5 concentration was 54 mcg/cubic meter, 8 percent more than in May last year.

“Two factors affect the PM 2.5 concentration — harmful material discharge and the weather,” said Xu Jintao, a professor at Peking University’s College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. “As long as the PM 2.5 concentration increases, it indicates more efforts are needed to change enterprises’ behavior.”

He said the municipal government should better manage the sources of air pollution, such as vehicles and industrial production.

Mobile sources, mostly vehicle exhaust emissions, are the largest source of PM2.5 in Beijing, according to a report by the city’s environmental protection bureau. It inspected 832,300 diesel powered trucks in the first five months of the year, with 14 percent failing to meet the emissions standard, and imposed 117,700 punishments as a result, double the number for all of last year.

The bureau also said it will target open-air barbecues as summer approaches. A hotline received 1,893 complaints in May about open-air barbecues, down 54.2 percent yearon-year.

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