BEIJING, Oct. 24 (UPI) — China will launch an air pollution inspection program, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said. Areas to be targeted include Beijing and regions around Tianjin, Hebei and Hunan provinces, and the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas, state-run news agency Xinhua reported Thursday. Inspections, to begin this month and continue through March 2014, are intended to determine how local governments are enforcing China’s Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, initiated last month. That plan imposes stricter limits on the levels of PM2.5, airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter. Companies violating air pollution control regulations will be shut down, Xinhua reports. The announcement came as the Chinese city of Harbin, about 780 miles northeast of Beijing, had been blanketed by thick smog since Sunday, resulting in the closure of roads, schools and a major airport. Harbin’s PM2.5 levels on Tuesday reached levels of […]