Five Local Environment Officials Investigated on Allegations of Tampering With Air-Quality Readings

(Beijing) — Five local environmental protection officials in Xi'an are accused of altering air samplers to manipulate air-quality readings and are being investigated for criminal offenses, the official Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.

The officials, including the former head of the Environmental Protection Bureau in the city's Chang'an district, were taken into police custody in March after they were found to have stuffed air-sampling devices with cotton yarn to improve the readings, the China Business View newspaper reported earlier this week.