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Beijing to shut down polluting industries to improve PM2.5 Updated: 2012-05-10 12:31:43 Beijing has announced a new crackdown on polluting industrialbusinesses which are major contributors to the capital's PM2.5emissions, Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB)said Wednesday. The bureau will conduct environmental checks and shut down anybusinesses failing to meet the new requirements, said the EPB. Some 66 polluting businesses, including chemical plants andwooden furniture manufacturers, mostly in districts such as Daxingand Fangshan, were ordered to make changes or they will be forcedto close and will also be banned from relocating. A total of 1,200companies might face the same punishment if there are noimprovements before 2015, the EPB said. Pollution such as dust, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides andvolatile organic compounds are a by-product of industrialproduction and lead to more pollutants through chemical reactions,such as PM2.5 (fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns),said an EPB official at a press conference Wednesday. About 75 percent of Beijing's PM2.5 emissions come from localsources, and industrial pollution accounts for 16 percent. In a bid to cope with the increasing pollution, the EPB hasmade plans to conduct inspections among industrial businessesincluding environmental impact assessments and pollutant emissionchecks. Companies that fail will not be allowed to be listed forfinancing or will be prohibited from participating in bidding forprojects or contracts. Some residents, who live near the sites of some of thesepolluting industries, still doubt whether the measures will haveany effect. Zhou Yang, a resident in Tongzhou, told the Global Times theircommunity, Xingfu Yiju, is surrounded by several chemical plantsand a printing factory that emits unbearable foul air everyday. "The EPB deputy head visited our community last year after ourmassive online protests. He promised to shut down or relocate thepolluting factories if they don't cut emissions. But until nowwe're still living in the stinky air that has given many of usrhinitis," Zhou said. The EPB means well with this new policy, said Zhou, but if thesupervison or management is lax, then more communities may face thesame problems his is going through. There have been a number of previous attempts to controlindustrial pollution in Beijing, including prior to the OlympicGames in 2008. Shougang Iron and Steel, Shijingshan district, amajor source of pollutants, was relocated, starting in 2005, andending in 2010. It will be hard to control environmental pollution overnight,said Zhang Yuanxun, environmental professor at the Chinese Academyof Sciences. "Now we've introduced PM2.5 regulations, so standards are muchstricter than before," Zhang said. The public's previous focus on Beijing's pollution control wasabout transportation, pollution from motor vehicles, coal burningand construction site dust, and now the government has madedetailed plans on controlling industrial pollution, another majorsource of Beijing's PM2.5, said Ma Jun, director of Beijing-basedInstitute for Public and Environmental Affairs. "Beijing moved and relocated some polluting plants before theOlympics, but still there are some remaining in the city that hasbeen a headache," said Ma. Beijing needs to "clean its own house" first while cooperatingwith surrounding areas such as Tianjin and Hebei Province toimprove the environment in the whole area, he noted. The EPB has given a lot of publicity to the efforts they madeon PM2.5 emission control since October last year, when the publicbegan questioning their credibility after they published PM2.5 datathat was in drastic contrast to the US embassy's own monitoringstatistics. PM2.5 control in Beijing is tough work and it may take 18 to 20years before it reaches a national standard, Hong Feng, vice mayorof Beijing, said at a conference on March 23, the Beijing Newsreported.(Global Times). I am an expert from kvsio.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Dual Screen Kiosk , China Ticket Vending Kiosk, Lobby Kiosk,and more.
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