Hong Kong Air Pollution ‘Very High’ for Second Day (Update2)
March 19, 2010, 3:43 AM EDT(Adds Chief Executive’s comment in second paragraph.)
By Sophie Leung
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong air pollution reached “very high” levels at roadside stations for the second straight day, prompting the government to issue a health warning for people with heart and lung illnesses.
The pollution is caused by emissions from vehicles in Hong Kong and from factories in the neighboring Pearl River Delta, the Environmental Protection Department said on its Web site. Last year, air pollution in Central, the city’s business district, reached “dangerous” levels one out of every eight days, which triggered health warnings and was “not acceptable”, Chief Executive Donald Tsang told lawmakers on Jan. 14.
Prolonged exposure to the polluted air “will definitely shorten life expectancy of people living in Hong Kong, though the impact is not imminent,” Wong Tze Wai, professor in public health at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said by phone today. “It’s local transport, not power plants, that are the major source contributing to roadside pollution.”
Readings higher than 100 on the air pollution index mean people with asthma and cardiovascular diseases may “notice mild aggravation of their health conditions” and should “reduce physical exercise and outdoor activities,” the department said.
The pollution index was 119 in the Central district, 97 in Causeway Bay and 105 in Mong Kok as of 2 p.m. local time, the environmental department said on its Web site today.
Diminishing competitiveness
“It’s definitely diminishing Hong Kong’s competitiveness,” Joanne Ooi, chief executive officer at Clean Air Network, a Hong Kong-based environmental group, said today. “The government is not doing enough to reduce roadside pollution.”
More than half of the 318 American Chamber of Commerce member companies in Hong Kong that were interviewed said they would invest money elsewhere rather than the city if air quality continued to deteriorate, the chamber said in a 2008 survey.
Tsang vowed in January to strengthen cooperation with the Guangdong provincial government to tackle the regional air pollution problem.
By the end of last year, about 22 percent of eligible vehicle owners had applied for assistance from the HK$3.2 billion ($412 million) fund set up by the government in 2007 to subsidize the replacement of old trucks and buses, the Ming Pao Daily reported March 11, citing Kitty Poon, undersecretary for the environment.
Bus Routes
Hong Kong is considering changing bus routes and setting up low-emission zones to reduce vehicle emissions, Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau said in a release March 17. Old bus models are expected to be eliminated from the city’s roads by 2019, according to Yau.
“Do we need nine years from now to do that? They do things at snail speed,” said Wong, who is also a member of a government environmental advisory board.
Hong Kong’s government has approved HK$13 million to support scientific studies, to be conducted by local universities, to understand more on how air pollution is formed in the city, it said in a release yesterday.
--Editors: Stan James, Dirk Beveridge
To contact the reporter on this story: Sophie Leung in Hong Kong at sleung59@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dirk Beveridge at dbeveridge1@bloomberg.net
