From the beginning of October there will be new regulations
governing the standards of lightning arresters in the city.
The new standards which will apply to lightning arresters on
buildings regulates the testing and installation of the equipment,
out-door and indoor, said the Shanghai Bureau of Quality and
Technical Supervision.
It also lays down criteria so that equipment can be assessed to
be adequate or not.
"The standard can be used by property management companies as a
guide for maintaining the equipment," said Xie Yan, director of the
bureau's standardization department.
Shanghai now has nine institutes qualified to test lightning
arresters. But the problem is most buildings in the city are not
checked every year as they should be.
At present, only 20 percent of the city's lightning arresters
undergo an annual test and of these 30 percent have been found to
have problems, according to the bureau's recent survey.
"According to the latest regulations, buildings of 18 stories or
more must send their lightning arrester equipment to qualified
institutes for annual testing, to ensure they work well," said Xie.
"Otherwise, the owners can be fined 30,000 yuan (US$3,866)."
The bureau said it may carry out inspections on to see whether
the equipment is tested annually.
Shanghai has nearly 50 days with lightning and thunder every
year giving the city a relatively high chance of lightning
strikes.
This year, so far, three people in the city have been killed by
lightning, all of them migrant workers - two in the Pudong New Area
and one in Nanhui District.
The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said it may issue lightning
strike alerts separately in the future. "At present we have
thunderstorm and strong wind alerts and we are considering issuing
these separately," said Yu Zhaoguo, a senior engineer with the
SMB.
(Shanghai Daily August 21, 2007)