Irregularities found in environment inspections in smog-hit China

A number of companies were found to have irregularities harming the country's environment protection efforts, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has said.

The irregularities, including unauthorized resumption of production despite a government ban and non-compliance with emission reduction measures, were discovered by 10 inspection teams recently dispatched to local regions by the ministry.

The inspection teams called for local governments and relevant companies to investigate and rectify the situation as soon as possible.

Beijing environmental authorities said Monday the city will maintain an orange alert for heavy air pollution for three more days as heavy smog is set to continue.

The alert, originally effective from Friday to Sunday, will not be lifted until midnight Wednesday, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

A total of 25 cities in China Sunday issued red alerts for smog.

Air quality in Beijing is better on Monday than Sunday because of weak cold air but will return to medium or heavy pollution levels Tuesday and Wednesday, the bureau said.

Under an emergency plan, heavy polluting gasoline-fuelled vehicles and trucks carrying construction garbage are banned from roads. A number of manufacturing firms are required to cut production.

China has a four-tier alert system for pollution, with red the highest, followed by orange, yellow and blue. Endi