Coal burning behind Chinese city's hazardous sulfur dioxide level: authority
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The undated photo shows Linfen being blanketed by heavy smog. [Photo: linfen365.com]

The government in Linfen, north China's Shanxi Province, says a hazardous level of sulfur dioxide and particulate matters detected in the city's air in the past week was mainly caused by residential coal burning, which produced 70% of the total amount of sulfur dioxide discharged in the city.

Zhang Wenqing, Deputy Director of the Linfen Environmental Protection Bureau, said another reason for the heavy pollution was industrial coal burning.

Zhang Wenqing said the Linfen government is taking various measures to solve the problem, such as banning the sales of low-quality coal and coke, in addition to requiring people to use clean coke.

He said the government has also developed an early forecasting and warning system and would pay close attention on the level of sulfur dioxide.

Statistics from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center shows that the sulfur dioxide level in the city's air reached 1,572 micrograms per cubic meter around a monitoring site at 10 pm on January 5, much higher than the permissible limit, The Paper has reported.

The incident has already grabbed people's attention and led to much online discussions since last week when much of China is choked in smog.

Li Ting, postdoctoral scholar at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said on Weibo that the sulfur dioxide level in Linfen reached 1,303 micrograms per cubic meter on January 4, as the city was blanketed by heavy smog.

Li said the atmospheric condition in Linfen that day was like the Great Smog of London - a thick and toxic fog that covered the British capital for five days in December 1952, which gravely threatened people's health.

Experts estimated that the Great Smog killed more than 12,000 people and thousands of animals, in addition to hospitalizing 150,000 people, according to Tech Times.

Citing the World Health Organization, Li said people should not be exposed to a sulfur dioxide level of 500 micrograms per cubic meter for more than 10 minutes and cannot stay in an environment for more than 24 hours if the sulfur dioxide level reaches 20 micrograms per cubic meter.

On December 19 of last year, Linfen's average sulfur dioxide level has reportedly reached 600 micrograms per cubic meter.On the same day, the Linfen government was ordered by the Shanxi provincial authorities to investigate and tackle the problem.

Author： 　　　Source：xinhua　　　 Editor：Yang Fan