The Sanitation Supervision Bureau (SSB) of the eastern province of Zhejiang released the results of an inspection on centralized air-conditioner (AC) pollution before the May Day holiday, along with an appeal for a local compulsory law to regulate AC management.

The national Sanitation Criterion for Centralized Air-conditioner Ventilation Systems was launched in September 2003 during a SARS outbreak. But it did not impose any punishments for those who refuse to follow it.

Last year, the SSB made a random sampling of supermarkets and 3-plus star hotels in the cities of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing.

It found that all the selected supermarkets and hotels were at least moderately polluted, and some of the hotels heavily polluted.

Accumulated dust and the quantities of bacteria and eumycetes in it, the three main pollution indexes, were found to be several times above Ministry of Health criteria. Eumycetes (a fungus) is thought to be more dangerous than bacteria in accumulated dust.

The SSB said the pollution was caused by many supermarkets and hotels not having any sanitation management systems for air-conditioners and managers lacking AC sanitation knowledge.

Also, defects were found in AC design and installation that resulted in secondary pollution where there were no fresh air supplies.

The SSB concluded that the lack of compulsory regulation was the most important factor.

(China.org.cn by Unisumoon May 10, 2005)