Poorest areas have best air quality: report

China's poorest areas enjoy the best quality air, a new report suggests.

Of the 30 cities found to have the worst levels of PM10, 70 percent also rank highly in terms of per capita GDP.

The data was included in an evaluation by Renmin University of China's School of Environment and Natural Resources and the Energy Foundation.

"Cities with poor economic development are blessed with better air conditions and low intensity of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter," said Ma Zhong, a professor at the environment school.

The report was based on research conducted since 2005 in 281 cities.

Badly polluted cities are mainly industry hubs and provincial capitals, Ma said.

According to Ma, the region containing Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province is seriously polluted, largely due to high energy consumption and emissions.

Yet, of the three, Beijing has the lowest intensity of sulfur dioxide as it does not rely heavily on industrial development, while coal accounts for only 40 percent of energy consumption.

In addition, pollution in different regions also varies. Liaoning province, for example, has serious concentrations of PM 10 — particulate matter with a diameter smaller than 10 microns — and sulfur dioxide pollution. Different measures should be taken accordingly, Ma said.

Although 71 percent of people interviewed for the report said air quality is improving, 46 percent were still dissatisfied with current conditions.

More than 82 percent want to know more about the air quality around their neighborhood, and 67 percent said they would take the air quality into consideration when deciding whether to go outside.

"The protection of air quality is now far behind economic development," Ma said. "The government should come up with a more detailed air quality evaluation system while disclosing more air quality information to the public."