Air quality in China has improved, says report

The air quality in Chinese city Shanghai has improved, a new report has revealed.

According to the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau's latest findings, there were 121 days between May 1st and August 31st 2010 which demonstrated excellent or good air quality in the city.

The Shanghai Daily reported that these results showed that 98.4 per cent of the time, tourists and residents experienced high standards of air quality.

Shanghai has therefore seen a reduction in the density of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other air pollutants since the monitoring began.

The newspaper suggested that the prohibition on hey burning could be the cause of improved air standards as the process can produce gases including carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

These results are likely to be very welcomed by environmental analysis experts after it was suggested earlier this month that China needs to do more to reduce the amount of pollutants in its cities.

According to Financial Times blogger Josh Noble, China's appetite for using coal is potentially the cause for its poor air quality.

Posted by Lauren Steadman