Amid heavy smog, MEP issues air quality notice  

环保部要求各地严控大气污染 强调群众环境知情权

环境保护部14日发出通知，要求中国各地做好重污染天气条件下空气质量监测预警工作，加强大气污染防控，并及时向公众发布空气质量信息，保障群众环境知情权。

Beijing (CNS)-- The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) on Monday issued a notification urging local governments to strengthen air pollution monitoring and to provide real-time environmental data to protect the public's right to know.

The notification urges agencies at various levels to better maintain environmental testing equipment so as to release air quality information in a timely manner, and to make sure the public has access to the information online or on television.

Environment experts will be dispatched to different cities to guide work related to air quality, it said.

Large parts of China have been engulfed by heavy smog since Monday last week. Air quality in some polluted cities has been beyond the range of the indexes.