From the beginning of October there will be new regulations governing the standards of lightning arresters in the city.

The new standards which will apply to lightning arresters on buildings regulates the testing and installation of the equipment, out-door and indoor, said the Shanghai Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision.

It also lays down criteria so that equipment can be assessed to be adequate or not.

"The standard can be used by property management companies as a guide for maintaining the equipment," said Xie Yan, director of the bureau's standardization department.

Shanghai now has nine institutes qualified to test lightning arresters. But the problem is most buildings in the city are not checked every year as they should be.

At present, only 20 percent of the city's lightning arresters undergo an annual test and of these 30 percent have been found to have problems, according to the bureau's recent survey.

"According to the latest regulations, buildings of 18 stories or more must send their lightning arrester equipment to qualified institutes for annual testing, to ensure they work well," said Xie. "Otherwise, the owners can be fined 30,000 yuan (US$3,866)."

The bureau said it may carry out inspections on to see whether the equipment is tested annually.

Shanghai has nearly 50 days with lightning and thunder every year giving the city a relatively high chance of lightning strikes.

This year, so far, three people in the city have been killed by lightning, all of them migrant workers - two in the Pudong New Area and one in Nanhui District.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said it may issue lightning strike alerts separately in the future. "At present we have thunderstorm and strong wind alerts and we are considering issuing these separately," said Yu Zhaoguo, a senior engineer with the SMB.

(Shanghai Daily August 21, 2007)