City plans more pollution emission monitoring vehicles

Beijing will monitor PM2.5 emissions using three monitoring vehicles on 30 main roads, according to environment authorities Wednesday.

The capital currently has only one PM2.5 (particles smaller than 2.5 microns) monitoring vehicle, which was converted from a van. It is on the streets every day, except during inclement weather, said an official from the Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment, according to the Beijing News.

This year, the government will buy two more vehicles and deploy them on five main roads in each of six downtown districts. The vehicles could cost up to 2 million yuan ($316,600) each, the report said.

PM2.5 emissions will be monitored at 1.2 to 1.5 meters above the ground, close to most people's noses, according to Xie Guomin, the director of the environmental sanitation department at the commission.

If any place is found to have especially high readings of either PM2.5 or the larger PM 10, then local neighborhoods will be warned to sprinkle water and sweep the street, said the Beijing News.

Zhang Yuanxun, a professor with Chinese Academy of Sciences specializing in the environment, praised the new monitoring system, but said the government has to figure out a long-term solution to reduce the PM2.5 index.

"Monitoring above ground level will help to get more accurate statistics," Zhang said.

Most monitoring facilities are mounted on the top of buildings, Zhang said, too high up to get average statistics for an area, and it is certainly not what a person feels at street level, he noted.

"But sprinkling water and sweeping the street can only reduce the PM2.5 index for quite a short time," Zhang said.

"The government has to come up with a final and fundamental solution," he said.