biostudies-literatureUnknown5(1)Wang YStaggered-peak production (SP)-a measure to halt industrial production in the heating season-has been implemented in North China Plain to alleviate air pollution. We compared the variations of PM₁ composition in Beijing during the SP period in the 2016 heating season (SP_hs) with those in the normal production (NP) periods during the 2015 heating season (NP_hs) and 2016 non-heating season (NP_nhs) to investigate the effectiveness of SP. The PM₁ mass concentration decreased from 70.0 ± 54.4 μg m^-3 in NP_hs to 53.0 ± 56.4 μg m^-3 in SP_hs, with prominent reductions in primary emissions. However, the fraction of nitrate during SP_hs (20.2%) was roughly twice that during NP_hs (12.7NPJ climate and atmospheric science99https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9739352biostudies-literatureStaggered-peak production is a mixed blessing in the control of particulate matter pollution.PMC9739352Duan JLi YOvadnevaite JCeburnis DLin CGu YWang THuang RJZhong HWang YXu WO'Dowd CfalseStaggered-peak production is a mixed blessing in the control of particulate matter pollution.Staggered-peak production (SP)-a measure to halt industrial production in the heating season-has been implemented in North China Plain to alleviate air pollution. We compared the variations of PM₁ composition in Beijing during the SP period in the 2016 heating season (SP_hs) with those in the normal production (NP) periods during the 2015 heating season (NP_hs) and 2016 non-heating season (NP_nhs) to investigate the effectiveness of SP. The PM₁ mass concentration decreased from 70.0 ± 54.4 μg m^-3 in NP_hs to 53.0 ± 56.4 μg m^-3 in SP_hs, with prominent reductions in primary emissions. However, the fraction of nitrate during SP_hs (20.2%) was roughly twice that during NP_hs (12.72022-01-01T00:00:00Z20222025-04-18T13:23:05.72Z2025-04-06T23:01:32.878ZS-EPMC97393523653048310.1038/s41612-022-00322-x