Sandstorm Breaks Pollution Records, but Greater Harm Lies in Hong Kong’s Own Pollution: HK’s severe air problems compounded by sandstorm
Desert dust cloud brings record air pollution to Hong Kong
but local roadside pollution remains the critical public health issue.
Hong Kong 22 March, 20010: Public policy think tank Civic Exchange today noted that dust from a giant sandstorm in northern China has caused record levels of air pollution. However, the greater harm comes from living in a persistently high pollution environment, and there is an urgent need to reduce the pollution Hong Kong generates itself. Toxic emissions from motor vehicles in particular remain a persistent and far greater threat to public health.
“Even though the dust storms have created record levels of particulate emissions, we must not lose sight of the fact that roadside pollution remains the single biggest threat to public health in Hong Kong”, said Mike Kilburn, Environmental Programme Manager, Civic Exchange.
According to the Hedley Environmental Index the dust cloud has caused levels of particulate matter to exceed 700 micrograms per cubic metre. This is more than 14 times higher than the annual level of 50 micrograms per cubic metre proposed in the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guidelines.
The giant dust cloud bears witness to serious overgrazing leading to desertification in increasingly wider areas of northern and western China, but the dust, and the potential impact on public health will be gone in a few days. However roadside pollution has caused serious long- and short-term health impacts in Hong Kong for decades, and there are still no effective measures in place to address the problem.
Since roadside pollution is generated exclusively in Hong Kong the Hong Kong SAR Government is fully empowered to address it. Last week, in a meeting of the Legislative Council Subcommittee for Improving Air Quality, Civic Exchange urged legislators to support a proposal from the Environmental Protection Department to progressively increase licence fees for owners of the most polluting vehicles[1].
Ends
For further information please contact:
Mike Kilburn, Environmental Programme Manager on 2893 0213 or 6221 2984
[1] Details of the Environmental Protection Department’s proposal to increase licence fees for the oldest and most polluting vehicles can be found on the Legislative Council website at: http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr09-10/english/panels/ea/ea_iaq/papers/ea_iaq0506cb1-1405-2-e.pdf
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Noticed the last couple days were the worst air days in HK. Did it cause by the sand dust clouds, which trapped the already worse enough pollutants in our city? I believe our life style was the same like other days (not saying we shouldn’t urge our community and the government to work on reducing air pollution), but what exactly led to the recent inccident? Did the sandstorm magnified our air pollution problem? Is that what is saying?
Mike Kilburn is saying that the sandstorm made what was already very severe air pollution levels in Hong Kong even worse:
“Even though the dust storms have created record levels of particulate emissions, we must not lose sight of the fact that roadside pollution remains the single biggest threat to public health in Hong Kong”
For more information, we refer you to our post “This week’s unprecedented Hong Kong air pollution: explanation & consequences“