China to monitor PM2.5 across 338 cities   

中国全面铺开PM2.5新标准监测 338城市实时发数据

(ECNS) -- Starting next year, Chinese residents will be better informed about air quality, according to a Ministry of Environmental Protection statement released in Beijing on Tuesday. 

A network of 1,436 monitoring stations will start releasing reports about air quality across 338 cities starting January 1, 2015. 

"These real-time reports will cover six kinds of airborne pollutants: PM10, PM2.5, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide," said Wan Bentai, chief engineer at the ministry. 

PM2.5, fine particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, is considered extremely hazardous to health as they travel deeper into the lungs than larger particles in the air. 

A total of 1.82 billion yuan ($291 million) has been invested to set up the air-quality monitoring stations nationwide, Wan added, with the selection of stations mainly based on population and urban sizes. 

To ensure data collected are accurate, a series of strict measures will be adopted. Among these, 378 monitoring stations will be directly controlled by he state administration, according to Li Guogang, deputy director of the China National Environmental Monitoring Center.