Air, noise pollution annoying to urban residents
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Xinhua, December 13, 2011
Roughly 63 percent of Chinese urban residents said they were satisfied with the local environment, with air quality and noise being their top concerns, according to new survey results.
The results, released Monday by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, were based on the National Bureau of Statistics randomly phoning citizens of most Chinese cities with a series of questions last year.
The satisfaction rate of respondents toward air quality was 55.2 percent, 7.7 percentage points lower than the satisfaction rate of 62.9 for the general environment.
The rate for noise control was 62 percent, also slightly lower than the average.
A recent government proposal for a tighter system of monitoring pollution nationwide, including using the "PM 2.5" measure of microscopic airborne particles, has won support from a majority of the Chinese public.
The plan to measure finer matter -- considered more hazardous to people's health as it can penetrate deeper into the lungs -- is scheduled to be fully implemented nationwide in 2016, and the central government may designate certain regions to adopt it ahead of the national deadline.
China currently uses PM 10, which gauges particular matter under 10 micrometers, to measure air quality.
