Smaller city governments, residents choose to ignore pollution rather than act
○ Sulfur dioxide levels in Linfen, a small city in North China's Shanxi Province went off the charts last month
○ When an expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences reached out to the local government asking for open information on pollution, she was put off
○ There's a large difference between regions in China concerning transparency
Wang, a resident of Linfen, North China's Shanxi Province, found out online that her hometown's sulfur dioxide (SO2) level has been off the charts for the most of last month. Yet, when she went home for Spring Festival a couple of weeks ago, few people seemed to care. Celebrations went on as usual, fireworks - which release a large quantity of sulfur - were let off by the boxful.
For most of January, the SO2 level in Linfen reached up to 1,303 micrograms per cubic meter, a level 21 times higher than the national standard and 65 times higher than the WHO's recommended density limit.
When she asked her friends and relatives about what precautions they take during periods of hazardous air pollution, they shook their heads and said, "There is nothing we can do, no one can live without breathing."
In Beijing, Shanghai and other larger cities, the public is slowly realizing the harm caused by pollution and the importance of taking precautions. But in smaller cities and towns, the situation remains far from optimistic. Companies and governments choose to hide problems and public awareness around the issue is low.
A tough battle
Li Ting, an expert at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences found one strange event occurring after another since she started investigating SO2 pollution in Linfen.
Her attention was drawn on the matter when she saw a Weibo post by an amateur meteorologist at the beginning of January, saying the SO2 level in the city had risen to 1,152 micrograms per cubic meter.
According to the WHO, breathing in excessive quantities of SO2 burns the eyes and skin; causes tracheitis; may result in the loss of taste and smell; and can even lead to premature death.
Li was horrified. She decided to call the Linfen environmental protection hotline, asking them about the severe pollution. The receptionist simply replied, "We've shut down lots of factories." Li pressed the matter, and the receptionist simply replied he doesn't know anything more and will get back to her the next morning.
After receiving no reply, Li called back again three days later. She was told to call back in a week. When she did, she received no useful information.
"During all these interactions, I felt everybody was friendly and nice, but they never provided anything solid … I felt the arrogance of the whole system, anything you ask went into a black hole," she wrote. "It's the way of many bureaus in China, they never respond after something happens, they drag their feet until the attention disperses."
Meanwhile, the Linfen environmental protection bureau released a report on how the government handled the pollution, saying 192 companies were checked by more than 700 workers, and that just seven pollution issues were found and handled according to law.
However, the government failed to mention what companies were involved, what they illegally emitted and how exactly they were dealt with.
Dishearted by local government disinterest, Li decided to check the data on her own. She went through academic papers from colleges, government bureaus and organizations using her own professional resources, but she couldn't find anything on pollution in Linfen, which says a lot about the city's concern for environmental protection, as well as the openness of information.
"These days, I feel like the environmental data that is released regularly in other cities is encrypted in Linfen," she wrote.
In the end, on January 19, almost three weeks after the SO2 spiked, the Environmental Protection Administration talked to Linfen's mayor and other government officials. Afterwards, a report was released which pointed out a few steel and oil firms were polluting illegally, coal-burning emissions were not restricted, Linfen's government did not release alerts publicly and did not take effective measures to control smog. This was by far the most active and strongest response during the whole matter.
"To China, Linfen is a small place that doesn't feel like it matters. If this happened in Beijing or Shanghai, I'm sure Weibo and WeChat would explode. It's easier to hear the voices of netizens living in first-tier cities, their way of living is easier to spot," she wrote.
