Posted on 10/25/2005 11:57:27 AM PDT by Justice
400,000 people in China die prematurely
from air pollution annually: expert
 Cyclists make their way along a street in Beijing amid thick smog. More than 400,000 people in China die prematurely annually from air pollution, according to an unpublished study by the research arm of the government's environmental protection agency(AFP/File/Goh Chai Hin) |
BEIJING, (AFP) - More than 400,000 people in China die prematurely annually from air pollution, according to an unpublished study by the research arm of the government's environmental protection agency, AFP learned.
The study, conducted by the Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning in 2003, found that 300,000 people died from outdoor pollution, while 111,000 people died from indoor pollution each year, said Wang Jin'nan.
Wang is a chief engineer of the academy, which is part of the State Environmental Protection Administration, and is also chairman of the Chinese Society for Environmental Economics.
"It's a conservative figure. The real figure could be higher," Wang told AFP on the sidelines of an international air pollution conference.
The conference was organized by SEPA as well as the US Environmental Protection Agency, the environmental directorate of the European Commission and the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Territory.
The figures have not been made available to the general public, Wang said, because governments, especially at the provincial level, do not want bad publicity about their jurisdiction.
China, while pledging to step up measures to fight pollution, does not reveal statistics on the impact of pollution on health.
The figures in the study reflect World Bank estimates that 400,000 people in China die each year from air pollution-related illnesses, mainly lung and heart diseases.
Wang said outdoor pollution is China are mainly generated by coal-fired power plants, China's main source of energy, as well as polluting factories, and the increasing number of vehicles.
Indoor pollution comes from the burning of coal, wood or agricultural waste for heating and cooking, he said.
The academy's research also found that one third of China's urban dwellers live in cities with level two or higher pollution.
Level two pollution is considered harmful to health, while level three is considered "very dangerous," Wang said.
Some 116 million people live in cities with level three pollution, said Wang.
In a survey of 341 major cities in China in 2003, the academy found that 27 percent suffered from serious pollution, while 32 percent had light pollution and 41 percent enjoyed "good" air quality.
Bush's fault.
guess the people who thought up Kyoto knew eh?
Doogle
Population control?
The air is so dirty in China that they smoke to filter out their regular air!
When you've got 1.3 billion people, you won't miss a mere 400,000 who drop dead prematurely.
weren't they exempting China from the requirements?
Exactly my point
Doogle
The leading wheel of the front bike is clearly visible while the "smog" obscures the bike behind; also there is a left to right spread of the small clumps of what they claim to be smog.
I've been there plenty and if you get the chance, you should go for the experience. If nothing else, it makes coming home so very sweet.
That said, the place is a pollution pit. I laugh when I read Dem-Wits complaining about how much we are polluting. I would guess none have ever flown into Hong Kong and been unable to see ANYTHING due to smog or to stand 3 miles from a prominent hill and be unable to see it. Then when it storms, for the briefest moment, it's all clear. That lasts about 20 minutes. The rivers are BLACK, not brown or yellow, BLACK. It's a nasty, dirty country.
One of the benefits of having a strong manufacturing sector.
got it! : )
I lived in Taiwan for 4 years in the late 1970s. It was their Industrial Revolution. One learns that the path to development requires an Industrial Revolution, which entails massive pollution. It's necessary and unavoidable, as far as I can figure.
Wow, working for the Chinese EPA must be the ultimate exercise in futility. ><
Spent a number of months in Chengdu, major city of Sichuan province, in the early 1990s, BEFORE the switch from bicycles to cars took place, and it was so bad I spent weeks coughing up black soot from coal/charcoal fires after every visit.
Most homes and shops used coal or charcoal to heat, and it was even worse up in the north, I heard.
Wasn't there a huge number of deaths in London several hundred years ago from coal smog?
Anyway, the autos are now adding to all this. Have seen satellite photos of huge smog clouds over China in recent years.
It looks like the steam that comes up from the pavement when the sun pops out after a rain shower! It sure doesn't look anything like the smog I've seen!
Except the sun isn't shining brightly and the garments imply the weather is cold; anyway, smog isn't visible close up to a camera from my experience.
I imagine the Liberals are happy to see this. Another 600,000 people per year and this new Chinese method of "population control" will equal the U.S. in "population control".
Images show Beijing vehicle emission pollution is world's worst
By Hamish McDonald Herald Correspondent in Beijing
October 26, 2005
China will shift a giant steel mill that is a big source of air pollution out of its capital city before it hosts the Olympic Games in three years.
But as it shuts down one kind of atmospheric pollution, Beijing has been revealed as centre of the world's most dense concentration of another.
New satellite images released by the European Space Agency show Beijing and the surrounding region of north-east China are the world's worst area for nitrogen dioxide pollution, produced by poorly filtered vehicle exhausts.
The 86-year-old Capital Iron and Steel Works, known as Shougang, is the fourth biggest steel plant in the country but is located only 17 kilometres outside the centre of Beijing. It emits some 18,000 tonnes of breathable particles a year.
The Vice-Premier, Zeng Peiyan, announced on Saturday that Shougang would now be merged into a new joint venture with the Tangshan Iron and Steel Works, China's sixth biggest producer.
The new Shougang Jingtang Iron and Steel company will build a 67 billion yuan ($10.9 billion) plant on the Bohai Gulf coast, on a 12 square kilometre reclamation that takes in the small island of Caofeidian.
It will have a port able to take 300,000-tonne ore ships arriving directly from suppliers such as Australia. As part of the relocation, the Beijing steel mill will have to move a staggering 120,000 employees and retirees from their present jobs and company housing.
But as Beijing removes the steel mill's sulfuric coal smoke and particles from its skies, European and Chinese scientists have revealed the city lies under the world's largest amount of the smog gas nitrogen dioxide.
The European Space Agency said instruments aboard the Envisat satellite showed the levels of the pollutant - released by factories, power plants and vehicle exhausts - had risen about 50 per cent over China over the past decade while concentrations had remained steady or declined over industrial areas of the US and Eastern Europe.
Exposure to nitrogen dioxide in large quantities can cause lung damage and respiratory problems, and the gas is also a main ingredient of smog, the ground-level haze caused by interaction between sunlight and traffic pollution.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/images-show-beijing-vehicle-emission-pollution-is-worlds-worst/2005/10/25/1130239521941.html#
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