[File photo]

Several officials in Xi’an, Shaanxi province have been arrested for falsifying air pollution statistics, as the deteriorating air quality might have jeopardized their careers, local media reported on Oct. 25.

One of the officials, surnamed Li, allegedly withheld the key to a local air quality monitoring station, and also copied the code of the station’s computer system. Li, along with other employees, repeatedly sneaked into the monitoring station without authorization, shielding the sensors with cotton to alter their air quality readings, reported Chinese Business View, a Xi’an-based daily newspaper.

“The air samplers should be exposed to the air to collect accurate data. Using cotton to cover them actually filters the pollutants, leading to fake data,” an anonymous insider told Chinese Business View.

The forged statistics soon came to the attention of the China National Environmental Monitoring Center, which carried out a thorough investigation and found the cause of the anomaly. Li, along with several other officials, is now in custody.

“If local air quality drops, the officials who were previously in charge are likely to be punished accordingly. Those officials falsified statistics in order to avoid being disciplined,” another anonymous source told Chinese Business View.

Due to the severe air pollution in China, air quality stations have been established all across the nation to detect pollutants. Placed mostly in large cities, the stations monitor ozone, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and meteorological parameters. The data is used by the country’s environmental protection authorities to understand the causes of air pollution and monitor improvement.