Strengthen law for clean air

To curb the number of smoggy days, many cities have drafted anti-pollution plans, but they lack the support of compulsory laws. For example, in Shanghai the smog response plan requires certain construction sites to suspend work and individuals not to burn firecrackers, but there is no legal enforcement behind these requirements, so the environmental staff can only "persuade" the construction site managers to suspend operations. Special legislation for emergencies is needed to deal with smog.

China Environment News, Oct 9

Environmental authorities always complain about the lack of staff and the difficulties they face in supervising polluters. Why not seek help from the ordinary citizens? Many citizens are willing to monitor air pollution sources; the authorities could well estimate there would be one million volunteers to do such supervising work.