MEP official recently released air quality of key regions and 74 cities in November of 2013 including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Province, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, municipalities, provincial capitals and cities separately listed on the state plan.　

According to the monitoring results in November, the ratio of days with up-to-standard air quality among the 74 cities ranged between 3.3% and 100% with an average of 52.3%. Days with substandard air quality accounted for 47.7% on average, among which days of slight pollution made up 29.1%, intermediate pollution 10.5%, heavy pollution 6.6% and severe pollution 1.5%. In Fuzhou, Haikou and Zhuhai, all days were up to standard. In 9 cities including Lhasa, Kunming and Xiamen, about 80% of the days were up to standard. The percentage of up-to-standard air quality in 26 cities including Dongguan, Guangzhou and Zhoushan was between 50% and 80% and that in 36 cities was less than 50%. Polluted days were mostly caused by PM2.5 and PM10, taking up 73.4% and 22.2% respectively. Compared with October, the concentration of major pollutants has all increased except O3. The monthly average level of PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and SO2 rose by 3.9%, 7.1%, 12.8% and 45.5% respectively. The exceeding-standard rate of daily average level of CO grew by 0.6 percentage points. According to the assessment of air quality by comprehensive pollution index, the top ten cities with poor air quality in November were as follows: Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Xingtai, Tangshan, Handan, Jinan, Taiyuan, Langfang, Urumqi, and Hengshui. The top ten cities enjoying good air quality included Haikou, Lhasa, Fuzhou, Guiyang, Zhoushan, Chengde, Huizhou, Dalian, Zhuhai and Zhangjiakou. Compared with the previous month, air quality in Guiyang, Chengde, Huizhou, Dalian and Zhuhai improved dramatically and that of Haikou, Lhasa, Fuzhou, Zhoushan and Zhangjiakou stayed steady.

In Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Province, the days with up-to-standard air quality in 13 cities accounted for 3.3% -83.3%, averaging 39.1%. Days of substandard air quality accounted for 60.9% on average including 14.9% of the days suffering from heavy pollution and 5.9% severe pollution. Among the 13 cities, days with up-to-standard air quality in Zhangjiakou accounted for 83.3% and the percentage for Chengde, Beijing and Qinhuangdao was between 50% and 80%. Other cities had less than 50% of days meeting air quality standard. PM2.5 and PM10 were the major culprits of air pollution, resulting in 60.8% and 39.2% of pollution days respectively. Compared with October, the average ratio of up-to-standard days in the 13 cities rose by 1.9 percentage points.

Among the 25 cities in the Yangtze River Delta, the proportion of up-to-standard days stood at between 26.7% and 93.3 with an average of 42.5%. The average days with substandard air quality accounted for 57.5% which included 6.1% heavy pollution days and 0.3% severe pollution. Among the 25 cities, only Lishui enjoyed good air quality with up-to-standard days accounting for 80%-100%. Six cities such as Zhoushan, Taizhou and Wenzhou had 50% -80% up-to-standard air quality days. 18 cities including Nanjing, Huai’an and Zhenjiang had less than 50% of days with up-to-standard air quality. Air pollution in the Yangtze River Delta was mostly caused by PM2.5, accounting for 80.7% of the total. PM10, the second major pollutant, led to 18.4% of the total pollution days. Compared with October, air quality in the region turned much poorer due to reduction in rainfall and adverse conditions for pollution dispersion. The monthly average level of PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and NO2 jumped by 52.7%, 52.7%, 52.0% and 38.5% respectively and the average days with up-to-standard air quality went down by 31.0 percentage points.

In the nine cities of the Pearl River Delta, around 56.7%-100.0% days met air quality standard, bringing the average ratio of up-to-standard days to 75.5%. Polluted days accounted for 24.5% on average. No heavy pollution and severe pollution took place. Among the nine cities, Zhuhai enjoyed up-to-standard air quality throughout the month. Shenzhen and Huizhou had 80%-100% days with up-to-standard air quality and up-to-standard days in the other six cities were all between 50%-80%. The Pearl River Delta was mainly polluted by PM2.5, which caused 59.1% of the total pollution days. Compared with October, the average days of up-to-standard air quality in the nine cities climbed by 53.3 percentage points.