Chinese Pollution Violators Punished

Demonstrating a new, tougher stance on environmental protection China has begun cracking down on violators of national smog regulations. 

The regulations come in accordance with the four-tier warning system for “severe weather,” with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue. Each tier carries a unique set of regulatory measures meant to alleviate smog and lower PM2.5 levels. When a high alert is in effect, heavy polluting vehicles and trucks carrying construction waste are banned from roads and select factories must halt operation.

Since then, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has punished more than 500 factories and 10,000 vehicles which were caught flouting protocol. The offending factories were identified as producers of metallurgy, agricultural chemicals and steel.

This winter, 72 cities throughout the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Shaanxi Province have issued or maintained yellow and above alerts, and smog levels have already caused significant flight delays in Chengdu, Jinan, Beijing and now Shanghai.

Heavy air pollution in the north is set to continue.

[Image via Radio Free Asia]