City bans smoking bacon, blaming it for smog

The city of Chongqing in southwestern China is banning bacon smoking, blaming it for smog and poor air quality, according to a report by the Chongqing Evening News on Thursday.

City authorities carried out a "special campaign" on Jan. 20 to tamp down the practice of smoking bacon, open-air grilling and roasting chicken over wood fires. These processes "produce a large amount of smoke and ash, and severely damage the air quality and people’ health," the report quoted the city environmental protection watchdog as saying.

Pollutants from daily life are responsible for 16 percent of PM2.5 – hazardous air pollutant particles – the watchdog said, a significant increase over the 10 percent contributed by these activities previously.

This is not the first time that bacon smoking has been blamed for poor air quality. On Jan. 4, an official in the city of Dazhou in Sichuan Province also attributed the city’s smog to locals smoking bacon.

But an environmental protection NGO has discredited these claims by carrying out air quality monitoring. The Bayu NPO Development Center found that bacon smoking has little effect on PM2.5 levels, and its impact has a maximum range of 50 meters, the head of the NGO told reporters.

Smoking sausages, bacon and other kinds of meat is a centuries-old tradition that is part of many south China households' preparations for the feasts held during the upcoming Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 19 this year.

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