The second red alert lasted for four days, but the pollution had diminished on the first day, and residents questioned why it had been issued so early.
Wang Bin, head of the Emergency Department of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said the threshold for red alerts in Beijing had been lowered in March, making them easier to issue than in other provinces and cities, including the neighboring municipality of Tianjin and Hebei province.
The capital has begun soliciting suggestions from experts, as well as from government departments and residents, on how to amend its emergency response system to better serve the public, he said.
The ministry said the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei regional joint response to air pollution control is proving more effective because of the accumulated experience in the first two rounds.
Offenders pay 183m yuan in fines
Beijing authorities tightened inspections of polluters last year, handing out a record 183 million yuan ($28 million) in fines to companies and individuals who violated regulations.
The fines imposed in the capital rose from 106 million yuan in 2014, the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Team said on Thursday.
Zhong Chonglei, the team leader, said the fines leveled against companies increased by 93.4 percent year-on-year to 156 million yuan, adding that 1,937 cases involving fines of 44 million yuan concerned air pollution.
The capital stepped up inspections last year to cover more than 62,300 companies emitting pollutants.
Limits have been imposed on 19,500 major firms to keep emissions in check.
This year, inspection teams will continue to focus on coal-fired boilers in the first quarter, on polluting industries such as furniture and automobile manufacturing and chemical engineering in the second and third quarters, and on coal consumption in the fourth quarter.
The public played a greater role in helping to combat pollution last year, with the teams receiving 30,014 reports on the environmental protection hotline number of 12369, an increase of 14 percent year-on-year.
All reports on pollution have been completed, Zhong added.
