Fireworks behind severe air pollution on Spring Festival eve

in Beijing, other cities

Air quality in major Chinese cities dropped drastically after citizens set off fireworks on mass as the country entered the Chinese Lunar New Year on Saturday, a report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) showed Wednesday. Cities that banned fireworks saw their air quality remain unchanged.
The density of PM2.5, particulate matter under 2.5 micrometers in size, surged rapidly on the eve of the Spring Festival on Friday and the following day in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang in North China’s Hebei Province, MEP monitoring data on cities nationwide showed. At 2 am on Saturday, PM2.5 pollution levels in the three cities jumped by 870 percent, 630 percent and 440 percent, respectively, from the level monitored at 6 pm on Friday. The PM2.5 levels in Beijing and Shijiazhuang approached 700 and 600, respectively.
The ministry began monitoring and analyzing air quality in Chinese cities during the Spring Festival holidays since 2013.
Cities that put a ban on or restricted fireworks, including Shanghai, Nanjing in East China’s Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou in East China’s Zhejiang Province, and Taiyuan in North China’s Shanxi Province, did not report a sudden surge in PM2.5 levels during Friday night and the early hours of Saturday. These cities also recorded better air quality than years when no ban or restrictions on fireworks were imposed.
Data from the ministry showed that only 19 cities out of 338 monitored had severe air pollution as of 6 pm Friday. By 2 am Saturday, the number of polluted cities had jumped to 183, with 105 cities reaching severe pollution levels. The data also showed that PM2.5 levels began to surge from 8 pm Friday, peaking at 2 am Saturday and only dropping from 5 pm on the same day.
Coastal cities also recorded better air quality than cities located in central and western China.
At 2 am Saturday, air quality in Beijing reached its worst levels in the past five years, the report showed.

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