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Better use of air quality reports urged

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Heavy fog persisted in Beijing for three days. [CFP]

Heavy fog persisted in Beijing in February 2011. [File photo]

It's also necessary for the government to come up with an alert system or emergency mechanism for heavy-pollution days, Ma said. The public should be warned against being outdoors on those days, and schools should cancel outdoor activities, he said.

"Authorities should not only release the real-time reports on the Internet, but should also provide more user-friendly and straightforward descriptions of the air quality," said Ma.

Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging service, has been proved to be an effective channel to release the data, he said.

This view was echoed by Wang Wuyi, a researcher with the Institute of Geographic Sciences and National Resources Research.

Members of the public need accurate and brief descriptions of the air quality around their neighborhoods instead of a list of dry figures, Wang said.

Zhu Xiao, associate professor of the Renmin University of China, said that education authorities and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention should jointly set up a mechanism to prevent children from going out when the air is too polluted.

According to Huang Zuzhao, deputy director of the Guangzhou Environmental Monitoring Center, Guangzhou residents now get air-quality information through colored maps, so that they can easily assess the conditions in their neighborhoods.

The center publishes real-time data on its Weibo account, and Huang believes it also would be a good idea to offer the information via applications used in mobile devices.

"We'll keep working hard to make the published data practical for people. They can now get advice on whether the air quality is good enough for outdoor activities on the center's website and on Sina Weibo," Huang said.

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