Impact of environmental regulations on the efficient control of industrial pollution in China

The continuous progress of industrialization is a fundamental cause of China’s increasingly severe environmental pollution problem.Improving the efficiency of industrial pollution control is an inevitable choice to effectively decrease pollution emissions,thus winning the battle of pollution prevention and control.In this paper,we used the stochastic frontier analysis(SFA)model to measure the provincial efficiency of industrial pollution control based on the input and output data of industrial pollution control of 29 administrative provinces in China from 2000 to 2017.On this basis,a spatial econometric model was used to explore the influence of environmental regulation intensity on the efficiency of industrial pollution control.In addition,the spatial spillover effect of pollution reduction was thoroughly examined.The results show that:(1)The efficiency of industrial pollution control in China has improved year by year,but the overall efficiency is still low,with the average value increasing from 0.165 in 2000 to 0.309 in 2017.Furthermore,there is significant regional heterogeneity with the highest efficiency level in the east and lowest efficiency level in the west.(2)By increasing the financial and material input,the efficiency of industrial pollution control has increased.However,the increase of human input has not been so helpful.(3)The global Moran’s I index is significantly greater than zero,indicating a strong spatial correlation and agglomeration in the efficiency of industrial pollution control,which is reflected in high-high agglomeration in the eastern region and low-low agglomeration in the western region.(4)Stringent environmental regulation has a positive effect on improving the efficiency of industrial pollution control.It also imposes a positive spatial spillover effect,indicating a strategic interaction and coordination of regional pollution control.In line with this,related proposals have been made to optimize the investment structure for environmental pollution control,establish a flow mechanism for the factor market,and strengthen the environmental responsibility awareness of state-owned enterprises.On this basis,we expect to provide a policy for improving the efficiency of industrial pollution control and promoting regional joint pollution control in China.

The impact of industrial distribution on the distribution of pollution:Evidence from China

This study aims to investigate the effect of industrial development strategies on the distribution of pollution in China.For this purpose,it uses the Theil index to measure the degree to which pollution was concentrated in particular areas of China from 2003 to 2015.Using chart analysis,it shows that industries became more widely spread out over time,and finds water-polluted cities but no air-polluted cities in areas of high industry concentration.Employing estimates from the Theil indices,I find that,while the within-region and between-region imbalances of industrial output were both reduced by the strategic plan,the speed of water pollution diversion does not align with the overall movement of industries,and there is not much between-region movement in wastewater pollution.The distribution of soot emissions is found to differ significantly from that of industrial output,with negligible initial levels and subsequent changes in the between-region concentration of soot emissions.Most of the initial concentration and changes in concentration are within region,suggesting that industrial development strategies have helped spread industries out more evenly.Meanwhile,the distribution of industries is found to have changed the distribution of water pollution,but it did not have any impact on the concentration of air pollution.

A new prediction method of industrial atmospheric pollutant emission intensity based on pollutant emission standard quantification

Industrial emissions are the main source of atmospheric pollutants in China.Accurate and reasonable prediction of the emission of atmospheric pollutants from single enterprise can determine the exact source of atmospheric pollutants and control atmospheric pollution precisely.Based on China’s coking enterprises in 2020,we proposed a quantitative method for pollutant emission standards and introduced the quantification results of pollutant emission standards(QRPES)into the construction of support vector regression(SVR)and random forest regression(RFR)prediction methods for SO_(2) emission of coking enterprises in China.The results show that,affected by the types of coke ovens and regions,China’s current coking enterprises have implemented a total of 21 emission standards,with marked differences.After adding QRPES,it was found that the root mean squared error(RMSE)of SVR and RFR decreased from 0.055 kt/a and 0.059 kt/a to 0.045 kt/a and 0.039 kt/a,and the R2 increased from 0.890 and 0.881 to 0.926 and 0.945,respectively.This shows that the QRPES can greatly improve the prediction accuracy,and the SO_(2) emissions of each enterprise are highly correlated with the strictness of standards.The predicted result shows that 45%of SO_(2) emissions from Chinese coking enterprises are concentrated in Shanxi,Shaanxi and Hebei provinces in central China.The method created in this paper fills in the blank of forecasting method of air pollutant emission intensity of single enterprise and is of great help to the accurate control of air pollutants.

Associations of Adolescence Exposure to Industrial Air Pollution with Cancer in Young Adults

There is substantial public concern about the health risks of proximity to petrochemical industries.In the Haifa Bay Area(HBA),which contains Israel’s densest industrial area,these concerns have been strengthened by elevated cancer mortality rates since the late 1960s.We studied the association between adolescent exposure to industrial air pollution in the HBA and adult-onset cancer.This is a historical cohort study.The study population comprised 2,187,317 subjects,using the Israeli medical corps data linked to the Israel National Cancer Registry with follow-up of up to 45 years.Exposure assessments were estimated by a spatial kriging interpolation model of SO2,serving as a marker for the dispersion of air pollution emitted from the complex during the study period.We found increased crude(HR=1.23,95%CI=1.17 to 1.29)and adjusted(HR=1.16,95%CI=1.10 to 1.21)risk of cancer with increased exposure to air pollution in HBA.The associations remained robust in analyses stratified by decade and socio-economic status.We found evidence of monotonically increased risk in five of 13 cancer categories(leukemia,melanoma,female breast,central nervous system,and thyroid tumors).Our findings strengthen the hypothesis that this exposure posed a carcinogenic risk during the study period.

Ecology of industrial pollution in China

Industrial development has brought China both opportunities and challenges since the reform and opening up in 1978.Spatial and temporal analysis showed that rapid industrialization has made eastern China under a more serious pollution stress.The most serious effects of industrial pollution were reflected in aquatic and soil ecosystem degradation,and damage can be observed from species,population,and community to ecosystem level.Public consciousness about contaminated sites rose from 2004 leading to greater efforts in ecological remediation,monitoring,and risk governance.Considerable efforts are still needed in expanding the extent and breadth of monitoring to explore where the greatest ecological risks lie and how to control them.Ecology of industrial pollution has become a popular discipline in China and will be further developed to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.Future research for a better ecological risk management should be focused on multi-media transfer and effects of mixed pollutants,mechanisms for clean energy and material flow,and integration of ecological risk with human health risk.

An novel identification method of the environmental risk sources for surfacewater pollution accidents in chemical industrial parks

The chemical industry is a major source of various pollution accidents. Improving the management level of risk sources for pollution accidents has become an urgentdemand for most industrialized countries. In pollution accidents, the released chemicals harm the receptors to some extentdepending on their sensitivity or susceptibility. Therefore, identifying the potential risk sources from such a large number of chemical enterprises has become pressingly urgent. Based on the simulation of thewhole accident process, a novel and expandable identification method for risk sources causingwater pollution accidents is presented. The newlydeveloped approach, by analyzing and stimulating thewhole process of a pollution accident between sources and receptors, can be applied to identify risk sources, especially on the nationwide scale. Three major types of losses, such as social, economic and ecological losses,were normalized, analyzed and used for overall consequence modeling. A specific case study area, located in a chemical industry park （CIP） along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province, China,was selected to test the potential of the identification method. The results showed that therewere four risk sources for pollution accidents in this CIP. Aniline leakage in the HS Chemical Plantwould lead to the most serious impact on the surroundingwater environment. This potential accidentwould severelydamage the ecosystem up to3.8 kmdownstream of Yangtze River, and lead to pollution over adistance stretching to 73.7 kmdownstream. The proposed method is easily extended to the nationwide identification of potential risk sources.

Impact of industrial effluent on growth and yield of rice(Oryza sativa L.) in silty clay loam soil

Degradation of soil and water from discharge of untreated industrial effluent is alarming in Bangladesh. Therefore, buildup of heavy metals in soil from contaminated effluent, their entry into the food chain and effects on rice yield were quantified in a pot experiment. The treatments were comprised of 0, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% industrial effluents applied as irrigation water. Effluents, initial soil, different parts of rice plants and post-harvest pot soil were analyzed for various elements, including heavy metals. Application of elevated levels of effluent contributed to increased heavy metals in pot soils and rice roots due to translocation effects, which were transferred to rice straw and grain. The results indicated that heavy metal toxicity may develop in soil because of contaminated effluent application.Heavy metals are not biodegradable, rather they accumulate in soils, and transfer of these metals from effluent to soil and plant cells was found to reduce the growth and development of rice plants and thereby contributed to lower yield. Moreover, a higher concentration of effluent caused heavy metal toxicity as well as reduction of growth and yield of rice, and in the long run a more aggravated situation may threaten human lives,which emphasizes the obligatory adoption of effluent treatment before its release to the environment, and regular monitoring by government agencies needs to be ensured.

A Study of Chinese Government’s Policies in Industrial Pollution Mitigation

China＇s rapid economic growth poses serious concerns over environmental degradation, especially in the context of higher pollution levels resulting from unprecedented industrial activity. It is commonly held that government policies are effective in the form of investment in pollution control and the imposition of a discharge fee on industrial units for the purpose of safety of environmental quality. In this study, we find that government policies do not prove to be successful in controlling air pollution in comparison to water pollution. Furthermore, air pollution is increasing, while water pollution is following a stable, decreasing curve. Hence, some reforms need to be implemented in government policies, particularly those concerning the effectiveness of investment in environmental protection and improving managerial skills in industry.

Analysis of air quality characteristics of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei and its surrounding air pollution transport channel cities in China

Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei(BTH)and its surrounding areas are very important to air pollution control in China.To analyze the characteristics of BTH and its surrounding areas of China,we collected 5,641,440 air quality data from 161 air monitoring stations and 37,123,000 continuous monitoring data from air polluting enterprises in BTH and surrounding cities to establish an indicator system for urban air quality portraits.The results showed that particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters of<2.5μm(PM2.5),particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters of<10μm(PM10)and SO2 improved significantly in 31 cities from2015 to 2018,but ozone deteriorated.Air quality in BTH and the surrounding areas showed obvious seasonal characteristics,among which PM2.5,PM10,SO2,and NO2 showed a"U"type distribution from January to December,while O3 had an"inverted U"distribution.The hourly changes in air quality revealed that peaks of PM2.5,PM10 and NO2 appeared from 8:00 to 10:00,while those for O3 appeared at 15:00–16:00.The exposure characteristics of the 31 cities showed that six districts in Beijing had the highest air quality population exposure,and that exposure levels in Zhengzhou,Puyang,Anyang,Jincheng were higher than the average of the 31 investigated cities.Additionally,multiple linear regression revealed a negative correlation between meteorological factors(especially wind and precipitation)and air quality,while a positive correlation existed between industrial pollution emissions and air quality in most of BTH and its surrounding cities.

Seasonal comparison of moss bag technique against vertical snow samples for monitoring atmospheric pollution

This is the first study seasonally applying Sphagnum papillosum moss bags and vertical snow samples for monitoring atmospheric pollution.Moss bags,exposed in January,were collected together with snow samples by early March 2012 near the Harjavalta Industrial Park in southwest Finland.Magnetic,chemical,scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy（SEM-EDX）,K-means clustering,and Tomlinson pollution load index（PLI）data showed parallel spatial trends of pollution dispersal for both materials.Results strengthen previous findings that concentrate and slag handling activities were important（dust）emission sources while the impact from Cu–Ni smelter＇s pipe remained secondary at closer distances.Statistically significant correlations existed between the variables of snow and moss bags.As a summary,both methods work well for sampling and are efficient pollutant accumulators.Moss bags can be used also in winter conditions and they provide more homogeneous and better controlled sampling method than snow samples.

Evaluation of occupational noise pollution and attitudes of exposed workers in two metal industries

The purpose of the present study was to determined noise levels and to show the annoyance reaction, hearing loss, hearing impairment by the workers due to the occupational noise exposure according to Iran development of Environment （IDE） and also awareness about effects of noise and use of hearing protective devices （HPD） in the two manufacturing electronic equipment （metal） industries. The present study was carried out among industrial workers and included a sample of lao workers, site 1 （n = 52） and site 2 （n = 78） from two metal industries located in south eastern Iran province of Kerman. In order to attend the objectives of the current study, noise levels evaluation was determined throughout all different work stations in both industries. The results of the study revealed that noise levels in 75% of the stations are higher than limits used for assessment of noise for community response. The result of the study indicated that noise levels in the workplace are （66%） very high, （28%） high and only 6% low. Workers having higher education are much aware of the health impact due to occupational noise. Chi-square analysis indicated that the difference in educational background and not wearing HPD was significant and also a significant relationship was also observed between the impact of occupational noise on the health and education status. This research has clearly demonstrated that the workers in both the metal industries included in this study are at high risk of developing noise induced hearing loss and other associated ailments due to excessive occupational exposure to noise. There is a need to develop and apply a well-defined, comprehensive and enforceable training programs and noise regulation. The study revealed that the workers having higher education （9-12 grades） are much aware of the health impact due to occupational noise exposure. There is a need to establish a hearing conservation programs in both industries, the components of such program include noise assessment, use of hearing protection devices, audiometric and increasing awareness among the workers about the adverse effects of noise.