Air quality in 45 Chinese cities polluted in first half of 2011

BEIJING: The Ministry of Environmental Protection reported that the monitoring indicated that air quality in 45 Chinese cities was polluted during the first half year, Xinhua news agency said Monday, Aug 1.

In the latest semi-annual report on air quality in 113 cities released by the ministry, in the remaining 68 cities or 60.2% of the total cities monitored, the air quality was fairly good or excellent during the January to June period.

Among the 45 cities are the national capital Beijing, provincial capital cities of Nanjing, Changchun, Hefei, Jinan, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an, Lanzhou, and energy industrial cities like Tangshan, Taiyuan, Baotou, Anshan and Benxi.

According to the report, the average concentration of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter in the 113 cities, was 0.044 mg, 0.037 mg and 0.091 mg per square meter, respectively, during the first six months of 2011.

That means a decrease of 2.2% in the average concentration of sulfur dioxide and an increase of 5.7% in that of nitrogen dioxide, compared to the same period of last year, with that of particulate matter remaining almost unchanged. — Bernama