Beijing says fog not due to New Year fireworks

22 Feb 2007 11:01:13 GMTSource: Reuters

SHANGHAI, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have assured citizens that a heavy fog which blanketed Beijing this week, disrupting flights and closing roads, was not due to fireworks set off in Lunar New Year celebrations.
The fog cut visibility in the capital to several dozen metres on Wednesday, forcing the main international airport to cancel 190 flights. Parts of seven highways in Beijing and 10 in neighbouring Tianjin were temporarily closed.
It was the first time in over a decade that fireworks were permitted throughout Beijing, and the official Xinhua news agency reported that sales by two major suppliers had ballooned to 380,000 boxes this year from 240,000 last year.
Some local media and Internet postings speculated that fireworks were responsible for the fog. "Setting off fireworks has increased polluting particles in the atmosphere," the First newspaper quoted unnamed experts as saying.
But Guo Hu, Director of the Beijing Meteorological Observatory, told Xinhua on Thursday that while fireworks may have affected the air to some extent, they were not the cause of the fog.
"We had actually forecast a haze in Beijing for Wednesday, although it developed into a fog due to an increase in humidity after being affected by fog from Shandong Province and vapour from the Bohai Sea," Guo said.
Strong winds swept the fog away on Thursday.