Hong Kong struggles to battle deadly air pollution

Stung by the flight of business to Singapore and elsewhere and by over 7,000 avoidable deaths, Hong Kong is getting tough on the city's worsening air pollution.

The government is working on a final proposal to update its air quality objectives, which it plans to submit to the Legislative Council for discussion “as soon as possible," said Environment Secretary Edward Yau.

The government is testing sampler monitors at nine stations, adding to the five that are already measuring the fine particle pollutants, Yau said in a written reply to the Legislative Council today. Yau didn’t say if the data would be released to the public.

A critical change is that Hong Kong will now measure the more dangerous pollutants smaller than 2.5 micrometers at all its monitoring stations by March.

PM2.5 particles are more dangerous than larger particles because they may interfere with gas exchange inside the lungs when inhaled, according to the World Health Organization.

The government conceded that air pollution reached a record in 2011.

Roadside pollution in Hong Kong, which benchmarks itself against a 25-year-old air standard, contributed to about 7,240 premature deaths from 2005 to 2011, a public think tank said, citing data from an environmental index.

High nitrogen dioxide levels are linked to the deaths, the Hong Kong-based Civic Exchange said, citing data from the Hedley Environmental Index, which uses a peer- reviewed methodology to indicate the public health impact of air pollution

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Tags: Hong Kong pollution, Environment Secretary Edward Yau, Legislative Council