Chinese official blames smoked bacon for smog

While experts point to car emissions and city construction for causing foul air, a government official in a southwest China city has laid the blame on people making smoked bacon. The city of Dazhou in Sichuan Province has endured heavy smog since the new year began, with the PM 2.5 reading frequently exceeding healthy levels.

Rao Bing, deputy head of Dazhou Environment Protection Bureau, said on January 4 that one of the causes of the city's lingering smog is smoking bacon, a traditional method of preserving pork by local residents. Eating preserved pork and sausages is a long-held tradition in Sichuan, and almost every household makes smoked bacon before the Chinese lunar new year, which falls on Feb. 19 this year.



Local chengguan, or public civil servants, have started to raid and forcibly demolish meat-smoking sites. The claim has invited public ridicule and skepticism. One resident mocked the official's argument by saying that Dazhou's air might "smell like smoked bacon." Another said :"Smoking bacon has a long history, but smog does not."

Smoking meat does contribute to air pollution, but only to a small degree, according to volunteers at Bayu Public Welfare Development Centre, a non-government environmental protection organization, which conducted a three-day survey at a dozen bacon-smoking sites. "The impact of the smoking process is confined within a 50-metre radius," a volunteer said.