Toxic waste from a plant that produced arsenic is polluting waterways in Hunan province, 10 years after the business was closed down. Some 150,000 tons of arsenic-tainted waste is stored in the abandoned plant on a hillside in Lanshan County, and run-off is severely polluting local tributaries of the Xiangjiang, the largest river in Hunan. Stones submerged in tainted river water have turned a creamy yellow from sulfide pollution. Tests in a river just 300 meters from the plant showed the arsenic content was nearly 2.42 times higher than the standard. A private plant, using the mineral pyrite and mine waste to produce arsenic, was approved to be built in 1998. But it was found to have caused severe pollution due to substandard environmental facilities and was ordered to close in 2003. While machines were removed and workshops pulled down, waste material was left behind. The local Environmental Protection Bureau spent CNY240,000 in 2010 to clean the surrounding area, but due to insufficient funds and a lack of available technology, waste remained unprocessed. The county announced in November that CNY984,600 would be spent tackling the pollution.

Although China has regulations on disposal of medical waste, the danger of pollution from such waste remains very real, experts said. While the law requires all medical scrap to be treated collectively, many hospitals and clinics are not complying. In 2002, total production of medical waste stood at about 650,000 tons, averaging 1,780 tons per day. The figure has increased by 10% every year since then, and now stands at roughly three times that amount. Although many local governments are building disposal centers, many hospitals and clinics are still disposing of their own medical waste. Some is burnt using diesel oil without any decontamination, causing air and water pollution. Another issue is poor management of disposal centers. Regulations state that the material should be disposed of within 24 hours, but waste has been found lying in the open air for months without any treatment at a disposal center, the Shanghai Daily reports.

Ozone and particulate matter worsened air quality in the Pearl River Delta region in October, making it the most polluted area in the country, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) reported. In the Pearl River Delta region, only 22.2% of the days in October had good air quality. The number in September was 77.6%. Though there was no severe pollution in October, the nine major cities in the region had good air quality for fewer than 15 days, according to the report. Ozone remained the top pollutant, accounting for 20 days of the 24 polluted days. The average level of ozone in the region rose by almost 40% compared with the level in September. Particulate matter also significantly contributed to the region’s heavy pollution, with the level of PM2.5 rising by almost 90% and the PM10 level rising by more than 70% compared with the previous month. The Ministry attributed the cause of the severe pollution in the region to the shortage of precipitation and the increase of solar radiation intensity in October. Nationwide, almost half of the 74 cities mentioned in the report by the MEP had good air quality in fewer than 15 days in October. The number of such cities was only 19 in September. Levels of all types of pollutants, except for ozone, rose in October due to the change of season from autumn to winter, the report said. Aside from the Pearl River Delta region, air quality in the Yangtze River Delta region and the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province cluster also worsened. The major pollutant in the Yangtze River Delta region shifted from ozone in September to PM2.5 in October. Six cities in Hebei province ranked in the top 10 most polluted cities, the China Daily reports.

Enterprises in suburban Beijing and nearby areas are still illegally discharging airborne pollutants on a large scale, an investigation by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) discovered. Twenty-one of the 65 companies and factories checked were found to be carrying out illegal activities, such as excessive emissions of pollutants, or to have poor environmental management, inspection results show. Dust also worsened air pollution in the region, with no effective dust proof measures taken at construction sites, coal yards and rubbish dumps. Punishments for the companies are still pending, but nine of them from Hebei have already been fined up to CNY100,000. Zou Shoumin, Director of the Ministry’s Environmental Supervision Bureau, said that “under the current laws and regulations, people can be investigated for legal responsibility only when found to have violated relevant laws more than twice a year and to have caused a certain level of damage to the environment. We have high expectations for the environmental law that is being amended and hope that harsher penalties, such as fines based on the number of days of pollution, can be included.”

Shanghai suffered heavy air pollution on several days in the past month. The air quality index (AQI) measuring pollution levels on some days rose to more than 340. The Shanghai Education Commission asked schools to cancel outdoor activities on heavily polluted days. People remarked online they were shocked Shanghai was “catching up” with Beijing, which has suffered from heavy air pollution for years. Shanghai’s environmental watchdog is working on adjustments to the city air quality warning system, after it took 27 hours to report heavy pollution. Shanghai also suffered several days of severe smog in the beginning of December with the air quality index surging past 400. A total of 104 cities in 20 provinces in and near China’s two largest industrial clusters－the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta region－fell victim to heavy smog that reduced visibility to less than 10 meters in some places, according to the Environmental Protection Ministry (MEP). This was the second time heavy smog has covered so many cities this year. Thick haze shrouded many cities for more than 20 days in January, affecting more than 600 million people in 17 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. China is experiencing what developed countries experienced about 20 to 30 years ago, when smoggy and hazy weather caused by fast urbanization and an unreasonable urban layout frequently occurred, said Peng Yingdeng from the Ministry of Environmental Protection. “If urban planning does not take the diffusion of pollutants into consideration, smog will plague China for at least another 10 to 20 years,” he told Beijing News. The latest wave of smog first swept into Shanghai and Jiangsu province on December 1. PM2.5 levels in Shanghai hit a record on December 1: an average of 582 micrograms per cubic meter for the whole city, with the highest level exceeding 700 in the Putuo district. Wu Xiaoqing, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection, said the Ministry was working on a system to punish government officials for environmental degradation and to toughen environmental protection standards. “Emissions from motor vehicles contribute a significant part to air pollution, sometimes as high as 50%, especially in such foggy weather when the air is stagnant,” said Lu Shize, Air Pollution Section Chief from the Pollution Prevention and Control Department of the Ministry.