Inspectors sent by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection have found widespread environmental violations by imported waste processing firms, the Ministry said Monday.

On Wednesday last week, 191 irregularities involving 66 companies nationwide were found. On Thursday, out of 93 firms inspected, 67 firms were suspected of 169 breaches.

The inspectors have advised local authorities on sanctions against the firms.

The ministry launched a month-long campaign against pollution by a number of small companies processing imported waste at the beginning of July, sending 420 inspectors in 60 teams to localities.

Inspectors will focus on whether enterprises have passed environmental evaluations, violated rules of pollutant discharge, or illegally transferred waste imports, among other aspects.

Local officials will be summoned for talks if they act slowly in dealing with problems, according to the ministry.

China is stepping up the fight against pollution and environmental degradation caused by decades of fast growth.

A reform plan to improve management of solid waste imports was adopted in April.

The summer heat wave is forecast to continue this week and expand over more of the country, and people are being warned to protect themselves.

On Monday, the National Meteorological Center issued a new yellow alert－the lowest level in a three-tier warning system for heat. The alert, initially issued on Friday, means temperatures over 35 C can be expected for three more days.

North China, Northwest China, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and areas immediately south of the Yangtze River have seen temperatures above 35 C.

Record highs were set on Sunday in 11 counties in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Gansu and other provinces, with the highest being 47.8 C in Turpan, a city in Xinjiang.

The area hit by the heat wave in northern China will continue to expand in the coming 10 days, and southern China will see very hot weather that lasts for four to nine days, said Sun Jun, chief weather forecaster at the meteorological center.

Some areas, like Beijing, may get some relief this weekend, with temperatures forecast to drop below 35 C.

The heat wave in the south is a result of subtropical ridge, a belt of atmospheric high pressure characterized by mostly calm and warm winds from tropical regions, while the hot weather in the north is mainly due to another warm high pressure formed on the continent, said Sun said.

While the heat wave is making conditions uncomfortable, it is not particularly severe compared with other years, like 2013, Sun said.

Still, the heat can increase the risk of life-threatening heatstroke, said Gu Chengdong, deputy director of the emergency department at China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing. Heatstroke can happen when the body temperature hits 40 C, at which point cells can be damaged and the nervous system can be harmed. Fatal organ failure can follow, Gu said.

Gu suggests reducing time outdoors, especially during the hottest time of the day, usually from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has instructed education and health authorities to push forward the country’s medical education reform and improve professional training to build a “healthy China.”

In a written instruction consigned to a national conference on medical education reform held in Beijing Monday, Li urged the Ministry of Education, the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine to step up innovation and further coordinate medical practice with education.

They should take into account China’s conditions while learning from other countries, put traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine on equal footing, and train a large number of qualified medical professionals to provide better health services, Li said.

Vice Premier Liu Yandong, who was present at Monday’s conference, also urged medical and education authorities to meet the needs of the people, improve the structure of medical education, improve its quality, in order to train the talent needed for the “healthy China” scheme.

Chinese scientists will begin testing the country’s self-developed underwater gliders and autonomous unmanned submersible in yet another maritime scientific expedition.

The equipment — 12 gliders, one submersible, and a Raman spectrometer — was loaded on the research vessel “Kexue” (Science), which left Qingdao in east Shandong Province Monday.

The program’s lead scientist Sun Song said such devices demonstrate China’s strong maritime research capability.

Sun said scientists would use the equipment in research of deep-water cold seeps in the South China Sea.

Cold seeps are located at the sea floor where hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs. Sun said the whole ecosystems at the cold seeps, where sunlight can not reach, is supported by hydrocarbons.

A deeper research into the cold seeps may reveal the secrets of the evolution of life on Earth, which could trace to the earliest ecosystems formed by microorganisms, Sun said.

From the South China Sea, the research ship will sail to Yap Trench for marine organism and ecology survey. It is scheduled to return to Qingdao in late September.

Rescuers are searching for eight people missing after a fishing boat sank early Monday morning in the waters off east China’s Zhejiang Province, according to local maritime police.

The boat, with 24 people onboard, sank around 2 a.m. at sea near the city of Zhoushan, said police, who received a report of the accident at 4:30 a.m.