Starting from Jan. 20, the Chongqing's Environment Protection Bureau (CEPB) joined forces with the municipal departments of public security, city planning, food and drug administration and others to stop bacon smoking in major districts of the city. 

 

Eating preserved pork and sausages is a long-held tradition in Chongqing and the neighboring Sichuan Province, with many households making smoked bacon before the Chinese lunar new year, which falls on Feb. 19 this year. 

 

According to the bureau, burning materials in the open air and making "firewood chicken", a delicacy² cooked with lots of firewood, are also prohibited. Highly polluting burning materials will be replaced with clean energy such as natural gas, electricity and liquefied gas. Anyone caught violating the rules will face a punishment of up to 5,000 yuan (805 U.S. dollars), the bureau said on its official website on Wednesday. 

 

The CEPB said it has received scores of complaints from local citizens about bacon smoking recently. Chongqing's P.M. 2.5 readings have soared lately, and the bureau cited smoking bacon, burning materials in the open air and making firewood chicken as the major contributors based on its latest analysis. 

 

PM 2.5 is a particulate³ matter with a diameter less than 2.5 micrograms which causes hazardous⁴ smog. 

 

Chongqing's "anti-bacon" campaign came days after an official of its neighboring city Dazhou caused a wave of controversy⁵ for blaming lingering smog on smoked bacon. Rao Bing, deputy head of Dazhou Environment Protection Bureau, said that one of the causes of the city's acrid⁶ smog is smoking bacon.

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