Economic Observer Online
By Yu Huapeng (于华鹏)
Mar 1, 2012 
Translated by Zhu Na
Original Article:[Chinese]

The State Council on Wednesday took a step towards improving China’s air quality, by ordering for the air to be monitored for PM 2.5 – carcinogenic particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers that penetrate deep into the lungs of the city dwellers who inhale them.

After the revised air auality standards come into force, the concentration of PM2.5 and ozone will be monitored for 8-hour period concentration limits in key areas.

Those area include the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta regions, Shanghai, Chongqing and all provincial capitals.

In 2013, the monitoring will be widened to include 113 cities that are marked as key environmental protection areas. In 2015 it will encompass all cities at prefecture level or above.

The council also suggested scrapping obsolete projects in the power, steel, construction, nonferrous metals, petrochemical and chemical industries. It hopes to promote clean energy, the relocation of heavily-polluting enterprises and saving technology.

It said the next step will be to try and reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide in the power industry and others such as steel and petrochemicals.