January 21st, 2012:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/beijing-starts-releasing-key-data-expected-to-indicate-extent-of-citys-air-pollution/2012/01/21/gIQA3jOaFQ_story.html

By Associated Press, Published: January 21

BEIJING — Caving to public pressure, Beijing environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air quality data Saturday that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital’s air pollution is. But one expert says measurements from the first day were low compared with data U.S. officials have been collecting for years.

The initial measurements were low on a day where you could see blue sky. After a week of smothering smog, the skies over the city were being cleared by a north wind.

The readings of PM2.5 — particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair — were being posted on Beijing’s environmental monitoring center’s website. Such small particulates can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

It is the first time Beijing has publicly revealed PM2.5 data and follows a clamor of calls by citizens on social networking sites tired of breathing in gray and yellow air. The U.S. Embassy measures PM2.5 from a device on its rooftop and releases the results, and some residents have even tested the air around their neighborhoods and posted the results online.

Beijing is releasing hourly readings of PM2.5 that are taken from one monitoring site about 4 miles (7 kilometers) west of Tiananmen Square, the monitoring center’s website said Saturday. It said the data was for research purposes and the public should only use it as a reference.

The reading at noon Saturday was 0.015 milligrams per cubic meter, which would be classed as “good” for a 24-hour exposure at that level, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The U.S. Embassy reading taken from its site on the eastern edge of downtown Beijing said its noon reading was “moderate.” Its readings are posted on Twitter.

Steven Andrews, an environmental consultant who has studied Beijing’s pollution data since 2006, said he was “already a bit suspicious” of Beijing’s PM2.5 data. Within the 24-hour period to noon Saturday, Beijing reported seven hourly figures “at the very low level” of 0.003 milligrams per cubic meter.

“In all of 2010 and 2011, the U.S. Embassy reported values at or below that level only 18 times out of over 15,000 hourly values or about 0.1 percent of the time,” said Andrews. “PM2.5 concentrations vary by area so a direct comparison between sites isn’t possible, but the numbers being reported during some hours seem surpisingly low.”

The Beijing center had promised to release PM2.5 data by the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year on Monday. It has six sites that can test for PM2.5 and 27 that can test for the larger, coarser PM10 particles that are considered less hazardous. The center is expected to buy equipment and build more monitoring sites to enable PM2.5 testing.

Beijing wasn’t expected to include PM2.5 in its daily roundups of the air quality anytime soon. Those disclosures, for example “light” or “serious,” are based on the amount of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in the air.

Beijing interprets air quality using less stringent standards than the U.S. Embassy, so often when the government says pollution is “light,” the embassy terms it “hazardous.”

“There has been tremendous amounts of attention in the Chinese media — whichever newspaper you pick up, whichever radio station you listen to, channel you watch — they are all talking about PM2.5 and how levels are so high,” said Andrews.

“What has been so powerful is that people are skeptical, and I think rightly skeptical,” about the government’s descriptions of data, he said.

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Online:

Beijing center’s readings (in Chinese): http://zx.bjmemc.com.cn/

The U.S. Embassy’s Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/beijingair

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

Updated: 2012-01-21 15:56

(Xinhua)

BEIJING – Beijing’s environment authority on Saturday launched the much-anticipated PM2.5 measure of air quality, fulfilling its promise of publishing the data ahead of the Spring Festival holiday, which starts on Sunday.

The Beijing Environment Protection Monitoring Center said its monitoring station at the city’s second ring road had detected 0.003 micrograms of PM (particular matter) 2.5 per cubic meter, suggesting the air quality is good.

The PM2.5 gauge is considered stricter than Beijing’s previous standard of PM10, as it monitors “fine” particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter.

A fierce online public debate on PM2.5 and PM10 began at the end of 2011 when it came to light that air-quality monitoring results released by Beijing’s weather forecast station and the US Embassy in Beijing often differed.

On Saturday, the embassy’s air-quality rating also suggested the air is “good.”

Zhao Yue, deputy head of the Beijing Environment Protection Monitoring Center, said cold air from Friday helped blow away “hazardous” pollution persisting in the air due to week-long smoggy weather.

However, he pointed out Saturday’s PM2.5 reading can only vouch for air quality in Xicheng district, where the city’s only PM2.5 monitoring station was set up.

He said local authorities plan to build a citywide network of PM2.5 monitoring stations by the end of this year.

Zhao did not give the exact number of stations to be built. But the city currently has set up 27 PM10 monitoring stations to provide real-time data covering in the whole city.

Yu Jianhua, an air official with the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said the city government has spent 10 years taking aggressive air pollution control measures, including eliminating heavy-polluting vehicles and using clean energy for heating, in the hope of meeting the national PM10 standard of 100 micrograms per cubic meter of air. However, the average PM10 reading last year still hung at 120 micrograms.

Although the national standard on classifying the PM2.5 reading has yet to come out, public hearings by China’s environment ministry earlier this month suggested the future national PM2.5 standard may be set at 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air on average a year.

Yu said PM2.5 on average accounts for less than half of the PM10 concentrations. It means, under the present air-quality conditions, Beijing’s average PM2.5 rating could not meet the pending national standard.

He said research showed that 50 percent of the total PM2.5 particles in the air are contributed by automobile exhausts, and another 23 percent are brought by floating dust.

Beijing’s geological situation means that air pollution is likely. The city sits in a plain area surrounded by mountains in three sides, Yu explained.

He said the municipal government has laid down a series of measures to tighten air-pollution control. Among them, a primary target is to introduce a Euro 5 emission standard to replace the current Euro 4 by the end of the year pressuring auto makers to upgrade products to reduce emission discharge.

Beijing has 5 million vehicles on road, meaning urban traffic is very congested. Experts say vehicle emissions contain more fine particles when automobiles drive at low speed.

Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved