Open Journal of Air Pollution, 2013, 2, 47-55
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojap.2013.23007 Published Online September 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojap)
A Review of Air Pollution and Control in
Hebei Province, China
Litao Wang, Jing Yang, Pu Zhang, Xiujuan Zhao, Zhe Wei, Fenfen Zhang, Jie Su, Chenchen Meng
Department of Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China
Received June 19, 2013; revised July 25, 2013; accepted August 1, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Litao Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
Hebei is one of the most air polluted provinces in China. According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)
for the severe fog-haze month of Jan. 2013, seven of the top ten most polluted cities in China are located in Hebei
Province. In this study, the air pollution history and status of the Hebei Province are reviewed and discussed, using the
governmental published Air Pollution Index (API), the academic observations by various scientific research groups and
the long-term statistics of visibility and haze frequencies. It is found that within the Hebei Province, the air pollution in
the southern cities is much more severe than the northern cities. Particulate matter (PM) is undoubtedly the major air
pollutant, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) pollutions are also unnegligible. Ozone (O3) pollution in lar-
ger cities, such as Shijiazhuang, is significant. Air pollution control history from 1998 is discussed as well. Although
Hebei Province has made a great effort on air quality, the pollutant emissions, such as SO2 and fly ash, showed a nota-
ble increase in 2001 to 2006. However, after 2006 the emissions started to decrease due to the strict implementation of
the national 11th Five Year Plan (FYP). In addition, regional jointly air pollution control and prevention strategies are
expected in the future to substantially change the severe air pollution status in Hebei Province.
Keywords: Air Quality; Hebei; API; PM2.5
1. Introduction
In Jan. 2013, continuous, severe haze pollution hap-
pened in east and central China, attracting the most pub-
lic attention. In Beijing, only five days were not fog and
haze days during Jan. 2013. It is reported that the daily
fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in Beijing
and Shijiazhuang has been over 500 μg·m−3, which is 6.7
times of the new China National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (CNAAQS) [1]. In the statistics of the Ministry
of Environmental Protection of China (MEP), during this
month, the ten most polluted cities are Xingtai, Shijiaz-
huang, Baoding, Handan, Langfang, Hengshui, Jinan,
Tangshan, Beijing and Zhengzhou city, out of the re-
ported 74 key cities all over China (http://hebei.sina.
com.cn/news/yz/2013-02-06/075733562.html). It should
be noted that in these ten top polluted cities, seven cities
are within Hebei Province and five of them are located in
the southern area of Hebei (see Figure 1). The air pollu-
tion in Hebei Province has aroused wide public concern.
Hebei Province, located in the north-east of China, is
east to the Taihang Mountains and north to the Yellow
River (see Figure 1). It encloses two municipal cities,
Beijing and Tianjin. The neighboring provinces (in clock-
wise direction) are Shandong Province, Henan Province,
Shanxi Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
and Liaoning Province. It has the area of 187,700 sq·km
and population of 71.85 million (http://www.stats.gov.cn/
tjgb/rkpcgb/dfrkpcgb/t20120228_402804324.htm). Most
of the northwest area of Hebei is mountainous or hilly,
while the central and south areas belong to North China
Plain. Hebei has a monsoon climate of medium latitudes,
which has dry and windy springs, hot and rainy summers
and dry-cold winters.
In 2011, Hebei’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is
2.45 trillion RMB, accounting for 5.18% of national
GDP and ranking 6th in China [2]. The major industries
in Hebei are iron, steel, coke and cement. In 2011, 45.5%
of the steel in the world was produced in China, out of
which 24.0% was produced in Hebei [2]. China’s coke
production accounted for more than 60% of the world, of
which 14.5% was produced in Hebei [3]. Hebei’s cement
production was 6.9% of the national total amount [2].
The air pollution burden of the southern Hebei area is
particularly heavy because of its special location. It is sur-
C
opyright © 2013 SciRes. OJAP

L.-T. WANG ET AL. 48
B
Be ei ij ji in ng g
S
Sh hi ij ji ia az zh hu ua an ng g
T
Ti ia an nj ji in n
X
Xi in ng gt ta ai i
H
Ha an nd da an n
H
He en ng gs sh hu ui i
C
Ca an ng gz zh ho ou u
B
Ba ao od di in ng g
Zhangjiakou
Chengde
Qinhuangdao
T
Ta an ng gs sh ha an n
L
La an ng gf fa an ng g
(a) (b)
Figure 1. Location of Hebei Province and the cities: (a) locations of Hebei Province in China; (b) eleven cities in Hebei
Province.
rounded by the other three populated and industrialized
provinces, Shandong, Henan and Shanxi. The steel, coke
and cement productions of the four neighbored provinces
are as large as 40.8%, 50.1% and 22.6% of the national
total amount. That is to say, 18.6% of steel production in
the world, 30.0% of the coke and 13.6% of the cement
were yielded in this area.
The large industrial productions induce huge quantities
of pollutants emission. In the widely-used Asian INTEX-
B emission inventory [4], the PM2.5 emissions from the
four provinces accounted for 28% of the national total
emission in 2006. The percentages for SO2, NOX, CO,
VOC, BC and OC were 28%, 25%, 28%, 24%, 30% and
24%. It gives us a clue why Hebei Province, especially
the southern area, has the most severe air pollution all
over China.
Hebei is somewhat overshadowed by its two neighbors,
Beijing and Tianjin. Like other aspects, its air pollution
problems haven’t been paid enough attention for a long
time. Very few studies have focused on the air pollution
status in Hebei area, analyzed the present control strate-
gies and given relative suggestions. In the 12th FYP of
Air Pollution Control in the Key Regions by MEP at the
end of 2012 (http://www.mep.gov.cn/gkml/hbb/bwj/2012
12/t20121205_243271.htm), Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei
area is one the three key air pollution control regions and
will be pursued regional jointly air pollution prevention
and control. Better strategies and more effective actions
should be expected in Hebei area. In this paper, we
summarize the air quality history and status according to
both the governmental reports and the relative academic
studies, and also review the air pollution control meas-
urements pursued within Hebei area and give suggestions
on future pollution control.
2. Air Pollution History and Status
2.1. API and AQI
The API is a non dimensional number calculated accord-
ing to the urban daily average concentrations of three
pollutants: SO2, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and coarse par-
ticulate matter (PM10). Besides of the simplicity, it pro-
vided the only publicly accessible urban air quality data
before the real time concentrations of the three pollutants
of the national sites were started to be published online in
2011. The API record of the key environmental protect-
tion cities from 2000 is on the website of the Ministry of
Environmental Protection (http://datacenter.mep.gov.cn/).
The detailed introduction of API system can be found on
in [5].
Before 2003, only Shijiazhuang, the capital city of
Hebei was listed in the China’s key environmental pro-
tection cities and had the API record on the website of
MEP from 2000. In Feb. 2011, three other Hebei cities,
Tangshan, Baoding and Handan started to publish their
APIs. Figure 2 provides the distribution of the APIs in
Shijiazhuang from 2001 to 2012. It can be seen that in
general, air quality in Shijiazhuang city was visibly im-
proved in 2001 to 2009. The number of the days with the
APIs less than or equal to 50 (which is also “no key pol-
lutant” day, see [5]) and between 50 - 100 was notably
increased from 0 and 93 in 2001, to 43 and 274 in 2012,
respectively. And the days having the APIs in 100 - 150
and 150 - 200 decreased, respectively, from 168 and 79

L.-T. WANG ET AL. 49
in 2001, to 44 and 2 in 2009. The severely polluted days,
in which the API was higher than 300, decline from 12 to
0 in 2001 to 2009.
After 2009, the pollution level kept relatively stable.
The frequencies of the APIs within 150 - 200 even in-
creased from 2 days in 2009 to 10 days in 2012 (note that
the API less than 100 means the city’s air quality reach
the CNAAQS [6]. The annual average APIs were 77.5,
74.6, 75.5, and 74.1 in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, re-
spectively. This number is 138.3 in 2001, 91.7 in 2005,
and 83.5 in 2008.
Figure 3 shows the time series of API in Shijiazhuang
city in the past five years. It is shown that the daily varia-
tions of APIs were consistent for the five years, that the
best air quality appeared in Sep., Aug. and Jul., with the
three-month-average APIs of 55.5 (2012) to 66.9 (2008).
Then followed Jun., May and Feb. Winter was the worst
season that the monthly average APIs were within 69.6
(2010) to 114.0 (2012) for Jan., 78.8 (2011) to 87.8
(2008) for Nov., and 89.1 (2009) to 111.1 (2010) for Dec.
In Mar. and Apr. 2008, the APIs indicated two pollution
episodes induced by sand storms. Despite the two epi-
sodes, the average APIs were 55.9 (2011) to 76.0 (2010)
for Mar., and 72.2 (2011) to 89.3 (2009) for Apr. Other
information indicated by Figure 3 is that the air quality
in Shijiazhuang didn’t show noticeable improvement or
deterioration during the recent five years, which is con-
sistent with the above discussions.
Since February 2011, three other cities, Tangshan,
Baoding and Handan started to release their APIs on the
website of MEP. To compare with Shijiazhuang city,
Figure 4 presents the time series of APIs for the four
cities from 2010 to Jan. 14, 2013. In general, Shijiaz-
huang city had the worst air quality that the average API
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
% of the year
Year
>300
250-300
200
-
250
150-200
100-150
50
-
100
<=50
Figure 2. API distribution in Shijiazhuang city in 2001-2012.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
1-1 1-7
1-13 1-19 1-25 1-31
2-6
2-12 2-18 2-24
3-1 3-7
3-13 3-19 3-25 3-31
4-6
4-12 4-18 4-24 4-30
5-6
5-12 5-18 5-24 5-30
6-5
6-11 6-17 6-23 6-29
7-5
7-11 7-17 7-23 7-29
8-4
8-10 8-16 8-22 8-28
9-3 9-9
9-15 9-21 9-27 10-3 10-9
10-15 10-21 10-27
11-2 11-8
11-14 11-20 11-26
12-2 12-8
12-14 12-20 12-26
API
Date
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Figure 3. Time series of API in Shijiazhuang in 2008-2012.

L.-T. WANG ET AL. 50
in Feb. 2012 to Jan. 2013 was 83.3. Then was Handan
city, with the average API of 73.6 during the same period.
Baoding and Tangshan city had the average numbers of
70.8 and 69.4, respectively.
At the end of 2010, there was a severe pollution epi-
sode in Shijiazhuang city, with the API of near 300 (as
420 μg·m−3 of daily average PM10). At the end of 2011,
Shijiazhuang city didn’t show big difference in pollutant
character from 2010, but a highly polluted episode hap-
pened in Handan city that the largest API was as high as
348 (as 458 μg·m−3 of daily average PM10). In this month
(Dec. 2011), the average APIs were 118.1, 102.9, 100.1
and 92.1 for Handan, Baoding, Tangshan and Shijiaz-
huang, respectively.
As discussed above, very severe haze pollution hap-
pened over east China in the winter of 2012, in which
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area was one of the most polluted
regions. It is clearly indicated in Figure 4. The APIs
reached the top limit, 500 (representing 600 μg·m−3 of
daily average PM10). It is four times of the CNAAQS.
One of the most possible reasons might be the special
meteorological conditions, comparing with the former
two years. Lots of investigations are needed before draw-
ing a convictive conclusion of this episode.
In Feb. 2012, the MEP released the new CNAAQS [7],
which will be implemented in 2016, and the new techni-
cal regulations on air quality daily reports [8]. In the new
system, more pollutants, such as CO, O3 and PM2.5, are
involved and API is replaced by Air Quality Index
(AQI).
From Jan. 2013, the MEP started to publish the real-
time concentrations of SO2, NO2, CO, 1-hr and 8-hr O3,
PM10 and PM2.5, as well as their AQIs, of all the national
monitoring sites in the 74 cities including the capitals,
major cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, Yangtze River
Delta, and Pearl River Delta (http://113.1 08.142.147:
20035/emcpublish/). At the same time the old daily APIs
for those cities were stopped to update after Jan. 14, 2013.
It is a progress that more detailed information on air
quality can be accessed on the real time system, but it is a
pity that up to now, the users could not access any longer
history data except for the data for the past 24 hours.
More understanding on the past special winter might be
obtained when the historical real time data are accessible
from the system.
2.2. Academic Observations
The largest scale of air quality observations over the Bei-
jing-Tianjin-Hebei area were pursued by the Institute of
Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (IAP,
CAS) [9]. 25 monitoring stations were established in
northern China by IAP since 2009, out of which 16 were
located in Hebei area [9], involving nine cities: Shijiaz-
huang, Baoding, Tangshan, Hengshui, Cangzhou, Lang-
fang, Chengde, Zhangjiakou, and Qinhuangdao. PM10,
SO2 and NOX were observed in these stations. Table 1
summarizes the results of these studies and the observa-
tions carried out by the other researchers. It is listed ac-
cording to the locations of the observation sites, from the
north to the south of Hebei.
The northest site is Xinglong, located in the Chengde
city. It is only the rural and background site in the table.
The daily average concentrations of PM10, SO2, NOX and
O3 didn’t exceed the present CNAAQS [6], neither the
maximum daily concentrations. Only the maximum hour-
ly O3 concentrations exceeded the standard (291 μg·m−3,
46% higher than the CNAAQS). O3 pollution at this
background site is unnegligible according to the obser-
vations [10], which may be induced by the large quanti-
ties of pollutant emissions for the near huge cities.
0
100
200
300
400
500
API
Date
Tangshan Handan BaodingShijiazhuang
Figure 4. Time series of API in Tangshan, Handan, Baoding and Shijiazhuang in 2010-2012.

L.-T. WANG ET AL. 51
Table 1. Air quality observations in Hebei Province (unit: μg·m−3).
Site Period Environment City size Region
Daily
PM10
Daily
PM2.5
Daily
SO2
Daily
NO2
Daily
NOX Daily O3 Hourly O3 Ref.
Xinglong
Aug. 15-
Sep. 15
2006
Rural and
background
County-level
city Chengde 69.4 (7.0 - 141.2)a- 4.4 (0.2 -
17.2) a- 15.1 (5.9 - 22.1)a - 137 (21 -
291)a[10]
Xianghe Jun.-Sep.
2008 Rural County-level city Langfang 113 ± 52 (248)b
76 ± 42
(184)b
13.4 ±
15.2
(84.4)b
14.5 ±
8.6
(41.0)b
15.9 ±
9.1
(43.3)b
82 ± 38
(230)b - [11]
Tangshan Jun.-Aug.
2007
Cultural and
educational City Tangshan -
109.8 ±
26.4 - 41.7 ± 7.6 - 66.7 ± 16.8
157.8 ±
42.5 [12]
Tangshan Sep.-Oct,
2007
Cultural and
educational City Tangshan -
150.9 ±
58.1 - 46.0 ± 8.9 - 46.4 ± 25.8
123.5 ±
61.4 [12]
Tangshan Jun.-Aug.
2008
Cultural and
educational City Tangshan -
103.9 ±
50.3
44.8 ±
31.1
38.6 ±
10.5 - 74.6 ± 25.8
153.0 ±
52.8 [12]
Tangshan Sep.-Oct.
2008
Cultural and
educational City Tangshan -
91.9 ±
62.4
52.2 ±
25.2
40.4 ±
12.6 - 42.4 ± 21.4
108.3 ±
52.5 [12]
Zhuozhou Jul. 2009-
Feb. 2011
Cultural and
educational
County-level
city Baoding 153 - 27 - 68 44 - [13]
Baoding Jul. 2009-
Feb. 2011
Cultural and
educational City Baoding 189 - 72 - 83 48 - [13]
Shijiazhuang
Aug. 12-
Sep. 25
2007
Cultural and
educational Capital city Shijiazhuang- 114.5 ± 45.3 - 51.9 ± 11.0 - 81.3 ± 35.6
166.7 ±
67.1 [14]
Shijiazhuang Jun.-Sep.
2008
Cultural and
educational Capital city Shijiazhuang150.7 ± 62.1
99.4 ±
48.6
80.2 ±
36.6
43.9 ±
19.8 - 64.0 ± 33.9
148.6 ±
71.5 [14]
Shijiazhuang Jul. 2009-
Feb. 2011
Cultural and
educational City Shijiazhuang204 - 87 - 74 34 - [13]
Handan Aug.-Oct.
2012
Cultural and
educational City Handan
196.5 ±
107.1
96.7 ±
55.2
69.2 ±
31.4
37.0 ±
26.3
66.3 ±
31.4
67.5 ±
22.9
135.8 ±
53.4 [15]
Handan Nov.-
Dec. 2012
Cultural and
educational City Handan
248.6 ±
102.4
121.5 ±
60.4
142.4±
56.4
51.9 ±
12.5
130.0 ±
53.9 14. ± 8.6 40.5 ± 16.7 [15]
Handan Jan. 2013 Cultural and
educational City Handan
347.2 ±
174.6
233.4 ±
144.4
222.6±
86.5
93.3 ±
25.2
215.6 ±
72.7 8.8 ± 5.2 22.0 ± 14.8 [15]
aThe data is “average(minimum-maximum)”; bThe data is “average ± standard deviation (maximum)”. Other data is “average” or “average ± standard devia-
tion”.
Xianghe site is in Langfang city, between Beijing and
Tianjin city. The average PM10, SO2 and NOX didn’t ex-
ceed the present daily standard during the summer of
2008, but the PM2.5 concentration were slightly higher
than the new CNAAQS for daily PM2.5 concentrations
(75 μg· m−3). Note that this was the Beijing Olympic pe-
riod, during which air quality were much better than the
normal situation.
Tangshan is one of the heavy industry bases in China.
From the Table 1 we can found that PM was the key
pollutant in Tangshan. Even in the Olympic period (Jun.-
Aug. 2008), the average PM2.5 concentration were 39%
higher than the new standard for daily PM2.5. Zhuozhou
and Baoding site showed the same characteristics that
PM was the most important pollutant. Their average
PM10 concentrations during Jul. 2009 to Feb. 2011 were
153 and 189 μg·m−3, respectively, much higher than the
annual limit of PM10 (100 μg·m−3). SO2 in Baoding site
exceeded the national annual standard (60 μg·m−3), and
NOX in both Zhuozhou and Baoding site exceeded the
new national annual standard (50 μg·m−3).
According to Table 1, Shijiazhuang, the capital city of
Hebei, and Handan, the southest city in Hebei, were the
two most polluted cities. The PM10 and PM2.5 concentra-
tions in all observed periods were exceeding the
CNAAQS. In Shijiazhuang, the average PM10 concentra-
tions were 204 μg·m−3 for Jul. 2009 to Feb. 2011, which
was about two times of the present annual limit. PM2.5
concentration, even in Olympic period, was 1.3 times of
new CNAAQS. Observation studies in Handan were
pursued since Aug., 2012. The average PM10 and PM2.5
concentrations could reach 248.6 and 121.5 μg·m−3 in the

L.-T. WANG ET AL. 52
winter of 2012, which is about 1.6 times of the present
PM10 limit and the new standard for PM2.5. As discussed
above, Jan. 2013 was quite special and highly polluted.
During this month, the average PM10 and PM2.5 concen-
trations were 347.2 and 233.4 μg·m−3, respectively,
which were 2.3 and 3.1 times of the daily limit. SO2 and
NOX in wintertime were also unnegligible in Shijiaz-
huang and Handan city. SO2 pollution in Shijiazhuang
was more severe than in Baoding, and NOX was on the
contrary. Comparing with Handan, O3 pollution in Shiji-
azhuang city was more serious according to the limited
data. Long-term observations are needed to understand
the air pollution characteristics in the southern Hebei
cities.
In intercomparison with other cities outside Hebei,
Wu’s study [13] compared the PM10, SO2, NOX and O3
concentrations in Beijing, Zhuozhou (a county-level city
within Baoding), Baoding and Shijiazhuang and con-
cluded that during the monitoring period (Jul. 2009-Feb.
2011), Shijiazhuang city had highest concentrations of
PM10 and SO2. The highest NOx concentrations appeared
in Beijing and the most severe O3 pollution happened in
Baoding. And during the three years, NOX concentrations
were increasing and SO2’s were decreasing. O3 and PM10
concentrations kept stable.
In [9], two severe pollution episodes over North China
were reported in the period of Oct. 27 to Nov. 10 in 2009.
In the comparison of Beijing, Tianjin and nine cities in
Hebei (except Xingtai and Handan city), the highest daily
PM10 concentration appeared in Shijiazhuang of 600
μg·m−3, four times of the national limit of 150 μg·m−3.
Another important conclusion is that the heavy pollution
episodes were characterized by nearly uniform concen-
trations over northern China and directly related to the
strength and duration of the southern flows. And the me-
teorological conditions of light wind, temperature rever-
sion and low mixed layer were important contributors to
the increase of PM.
In Liu et al.’s study [16], PM10 were sampled during
Sep. to Oct. 2005 all over Hebei Province, Beijing and
Tianjin City, to analysis the PAH pollution. They found
that the highest PM10 concentration appeared in Handan
and Shijiazhuang and the PAH pollution were most seri-
ous in Handan, Shijiazhuang and Tangshan.
In general, air pollution in the southern cities is more
severe than in the northern cities in Hebei. PM is un-
doubtedly the key pollutant. SO2 and NOX are unnegligi-
ble and O3 pollution in larger cities is also significant,
indicating that the both the coal-burning emissions and
the mobile sources should be considered in the air pollu-
tion controls.
2.3. Visibility and Haze Frequencies
Visibility might be seen, to some extent, as an indicator
of air quality. It has a longer history data for analysis.
Che et al. gathered the visibility data from 1981 to 2005
of 615 meteorological stations in mainland China and
found that 71% of these stations observed a visible dete-
rioration and this trend became more clear after 1990
[17]. The highest haze frequencies happen in three areas:
North China, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl
River Delta. And the rapid increase in haze frequencies
occurs in the middle and southern areas of North China
Plain, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River,
and South China. The North China area has both the
highest number of haze days and the most rapid growth
in haze frequency [18].
Within North China area, Zhao [19] analyzed the data
from 100 stations in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area from
1980 to 2008 and found that the southern cities in Hebei,
such as Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Handan had the lowest
visibility of 10 - 14 km on annual average (Beijing was
15 - 20 km) since 1990. In comparison with other cities
using the data from 743 stations all over China, the haze
frequency in Xingtai City ranked second on average from
1951 to 2005, and became the first after the mid 1990s
[20].
Wang et al. [18] analyzed the haze frequencies in 2001
to 2010 of the seven typical cities in North China, Bei-
jing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou
and Jinan. It was found that 2007 was the worst year and
the haze frequencies from highest to lowest were Tai-
yuan, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Xingtai, Jinan, Beijing,
and Tianjin.
3. Air Pollution Control History and
Emissions
Hebei Province made a great effort on air pollution con-
trol since 1998 [21]. In 1998, air pollution control meas-
urements focused on the key corporations, key industries
and key regions, such as tourist regions and areas along
the high way. In 1999, eleven cities were all required to
make the comprehensive air pollution control action plan,
and the mobile emission controls were strengthened as
well.
In 2002, besides the continuous emission controls in
major industries, the energy using in cities was paid more
attention to and the central heating was pushed to spread
in urban areas. In 2003, the provincial total amount con-
trol of SO2 was started, according to the national control
plan. But it was found that the pollution emissions didn’t
decrease in the following three years, partially because of
the unexpected rapid increase in energy consumption
[22,23].
In 2007, Hebei government released the Action Plan of
the Comprehensive Controls of Flue Gas Emissions in
Hebei Province. It required all the emission instruments
reached the national emission standards before Jun. 2008.

L.-T. WANG ET AL. 53
The explosive increase in vehicle population in Hebei
Province was noticed and its pollution control was streng-
thened as well.
In 2008, the objectives of the Action Plan were ac-
complished and urban air quality was improved due to
the flue gas cleaning, fugitive dust control and mobile
source control. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, lots
of small industries, high-pollution plants were phase out
or shutdown to ensure the good air quality in Beijing. It
brought a better air quality in Hebei Province as well in
this year. In 2009, the SO2 total amount control, energy
optimizing in cities, moving high-pollution plants from
our urban area were continuous pushing forward in He-
bei Province.
In 2010, the national SO2 emission control objective
was successfully accomplished [23]. Regional air quality
jointly control and prevention were brought forward by
MEP. Hebei government published the regional air pol-
lution control guideline to accelerate the regional scale
air quality improvement.
In the national 12th FYP of jointly air pollution pre-
vention and control published in 2012, Beijing-Tianjin-
Hebei was listed in the three key regions. More effective
controls could be expected under this action structure.
Figure 5 gives the provincial emissions of SO2, fly ash
and dust emissions from 1998 to 2010. The data is come
from the Report on the Environmental State of Hebei
Province published every year by Hebei Environmental
Protection Bureau (HBEPB) [21]. It can be seen that the
total SO2 emissions decreased in 1998 to 2002 by 9.0%
from the 1405 kt·y−1 to 1279 kt·y−1. Then it began to in-
crease to 1545.5 kt·y−1 in 2006, which could partially
attribute to the rapid increase of energy use during these
five years [22,24]. After that it kept decreasing again,
due to the effective national-scale SO2 emission controls
during the 11th FYP (2006-2010) [23]. In 2010 the total
SO2 emission was 1233.8 kt·y−1, which is 20.2% lower
than that in 2006. Figure 5 also indicated that industry
1998 1999 20002001 2002 2003 2004 200520062007 2008 20092010
Yea
r
SO2, domestic
SO2, industry
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800 Fly ash, domestic
Fly ash, industry
Annual Emission (103 t y-1)
dust, industry
Figure 5. SO2, fly ash, and dust emissions in Hebei Province
in 1998-2010.
contributed most of the SO2 emissions in Hebei, which
the fractions were between 80.6% (2010) to 86.7%
(2007). The domestic emissions were relatively stable
that kept between 186.4 kt·y−1 (2008) to 239.6 kt·y−1
(2010).
As to fly ash emissions, the general trend was de-
creasing, from 934 kt·y−1 in 1998 to 499.7 kt·y−1 in 2010.
During 2001 to 2006 it kept relatively stable between 699
kt·y−1 to 738 kt·y−1. After that the decreasing trend was
obvious from 723.2 kt·y−1 in 2006 by 30.9% to 499.7
kt·y−1 in 2010. The industrial emission also accounted for
a big fraction of 63.6% (2009) to 80.0% (1998).
The industrial dust emissions showed the similar
variation as the SO2 emissions. The general trend was
decreasing, from 1007 kt·y−1 in 1998 by 68.1% to 320.9
kt·y−1 in 2010. The rapid decrease happened during the
11th FYP (2006-2010) as well.
4. Conclusions
Air pollution in Hebei Province has aroused a wide pub-
lic concern, partially because of the severe fog-haze pe-
riod happening in the beginning of 2013. It was reported
that during this period, seven out of the top ten polluted
cities in China were within Hebei Province. But, most of
the previous studies involving Hebei focused on Bei-
jing’s air quality, the impact of Hebei’s emissions to the
air quality in Beijing, etc. Very few studies were pursued
focusing on the severe air pollution within Hebei.
In this study, we reviewed and analyzed the air pollu-
tion history and status in Hebei Province, according to
the API data and relative academic observations. It is
concluded that air pollution in southern cities are much
more severe than in northern cities. PM is the most im-
portant pollutant in Hebei cities, and SO2 and NOX pollu-
tion are unnegligible as well. O3 pollution in larger cities
is significant, indicating that Hebei’s cities are on the
way from the coal-burning pollution to the mixed-source
pollution. Visibility and haze frequencies in Hebei cities
are discussed, that Hebei has both the highest number of
haze days and the most rapid growth in haze frequency in
recent years.
Hebei made a great effort on the air pollution control
since 1998. The major air pollutant, such as SO2 and fly
ash, showed a trend of increase in 2001 to 2006 and de-
crease since 2006. In 2012 MEP published national plan
of the regional jointly air pollution prevention and con-
trol, more effective control strategies and measurement
could be expected to improve the air quality in Hebei
Province.
5. Acknowledgements
This study was sponsored by the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China (No. 41105105) and the Natu-

L.-T. WANG ET AL. 54
ral Science Foundation of Hebei Province (No. D2011
402019).
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