国内英语资讯:Beijingers buy less fireworks over pollution concerns_时事

国内英语资讯:Beijingers buy less fireworks over pollution concerns

BEIJING, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Beijingers set off less fireworks this year over pollution concerns as they celebrate Spring Festival, the most important festival in the Chinese calendar.

The Chinese Lunar New Year, which this year is the Year of the Rooster, fell on Saturday.

As of Friday, the eve of the Lunar New Year, sales of firecrackers and fireworks had decreased 4.9 percent year-on-year, the sixth consecutive year of decline, according to the fireworks office of the municipal government early Saturday.

The city reported 25 fires caused by fireworks on Friday, one less than last year.

Within the 24 hours till 8 a.m. Saturday, some 49,900 sanitation workers have cleared away nearly 367 tonnes of firework garbage in the city,down 11.2 percent from the same period of last year.

Chen Baoshan, chief of the operations management department of Beijing Environment Sanitation Engineering Group Co.Ltd, attributed the decline to the growing public awareness of air quality.

Beijing has ordered the suspension of fireworks sale in case of serious air pollution alerts.

Compared with the daytime blue sky on Friday, Beijing's air turned noticeably hazy at night due to fireworks displays as locals welcomed the new year.

Due to fireworks and the lack of wind, the city's density of PM2.5, airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, hit a peak of 647 micrograms per cubic meter at 2 a.m. Saturday, down 7.6 percent from the same time of the last lunar new year, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center.