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News > Xiamen News > 40.5% of the PM2.5 in Xiamen comes from motor vehicle exhaust
40.5% of the PM2.5 in Xiamen comes from motor vehicle exhaust
Updated: 24 Dec 2011
Read more on Xiamen Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau Xiamen air pollution motor vehicle exhaust Xiamen PM2.5
PM 2.5 are considered extremely hazardous to people’s health as they go deeper into the lungs than the larger particles that exist in the air.
According to the news revealed by Mr Xie Haisheng, director of the Xiamen Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, there are now about 30 – 40 ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter) PM2.5 in the air in Xiamen, and 40.5% of the PM2.5 in Xiamen comes from motor vehicle exhaust, reports Xiamen Daily.
PM 2.5, or particulate matter under 2.5 micrometers in size, refers to the fine airborne particles that are considered extremely hazardous to people’s health as they go deeper into the lungs than the larger particles that exist in the air.
Environmental experts said the PM 2.5 content in the air in Xiamen does almost no harm to public health.
Two air monitoring stations in Haicang and Hongwen have already carried out the monitoring of PM2.5 in real time since last year, and another six air monitoring stations will join the monitoring of PM2.5 next year. By then, Xiamen will cover the monitoring of PM2.5 to the whole city.
But the monitoring data is now only used for scientific research and will not be made available to the public until introduction of new national standards.
According to a recent timetable set by China’s environment watchdog, cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, as well as Southwest China’s Chongqing municipality and provincial capitals, are requested to monitor PM2.5 and ozone starting in 2012, and the country’s 113 key environmental protection cities will have to start monitoring PM2.5 in 2013, while all county-level cities should follow the rule by 2015.
However, according to the needs of the public, relevant Xiamen environmental protection departments said, they may release the daily PM2.5 monitoring results to the public via public media in advance than the designated 2013 time limit.
SOURCE: WOXnews.com