The Chinese tradition of curing pork is being blamed for the thick smog that engulfs the city. (Photo : Reuters)
Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China is now prohibiting residents from making smoked bacon. The local government is blaming the traditional method of curing pork for the city's stinking air.
Chongqing Environment Protection Bureau (CEPB) joined forces with other local government agencies including city planning and food and drug administration starting Jan. 20 to implement the new rule. Making smoked bacon for the Chinese New Year, which falls in February, is an old Chinese tradition.
The bureau stated that burning materials and making "firewood chicken," another traditional meal cooked with heaps of firewood, are also banned. Pollutants like high-burning firewood must be replaced with alternative materials such as clean gas, electricity or liquefied petroleum. Violators will be fined 5,000 yuan ($805).
The bureau stated that it received lots of complaints from angry citizens. The city's pollution readings recently soared due to burning materials used in making smoked bacon and firewood chicken. PM2.5 is a particular end-matter which produces dangerous smog in the air.
The anti-bacon campaign was officiated when a Dazhou official created controversy by blaming the smog on smoked bacon. Deputy head of Dazhou Environment Protection Bureau Rao Bing said that "the city's smog is smoking bacon." After the pronouncement, meat-smoking sites were raided by the government.
The controversy, however, was refuted by a non-government organization. Bayu Public Welfare Development Center said that although curing bacon contributes to air pollution, it only does in a small amount. The organization said that after conducting a survey to random meat-smoking sites, the smog caused by the traditional bacon practice is "confined within a 50-meter radius."
The campaign was ridiculed by skeptic netizens. The general opinion is that "the government should ban cooking because it also generates air pollution." And even harsher, "maybe we should stop breathing because it pollutes the air."
Chinese government officials have been known to suggest controversial smog explanations. Just last year, the smog in Henan Province was blamed to the farmers' practice of burning straw.
