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Report Announced By Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network

Oct 29th, 2008
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Media-Newswire.com | 29 Oct 08

The Environmental Protection Department ( EPD ) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Environmental Protection Bureau of Guangdong Province ( GDEPB ) today ( October 29 ) announced the report on the monitoring results of four major air pollutants ( sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and respirable suspended particulates ) measured by the Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network ( Network ).

The report, which covers the period between January and June 2008, is available on both the GDEPB’s website ( http://www.gdepb.gov.cn ) and EPD’s website ( http://www.epd.gov.hk ).

In general, the overall concentrations of most pollutants were generally higher in the winter months ( January to March ). Lower concentration levels were recorded as summer approached ( June ). Apart from heavier rainfall and higher mixing layer, the relatively clean maritime air stream prevailed in the Pearl River Delta ( PRD ) region under the influence of southern monsoon and also accounted for a lower level of pollution in summer time. The air quality was better in the coastal areas than in the central and northern areas of the region in the first half of 2008, most probably as a result of relatively more favourable conditions for dispersion of pollutants in the former.

Overall, 72% of the Regional Air Quality Index as recorded by the network in the first half of 2008 were in Grade I or II, meaning the pollutant concentrations are within Class 2 National Ambient Air Quality Standards ( NAAQS ). Intermittent high level of pollutants exceeding Class 2 NAAQS ( applicable to general residential areas ) was recorded in all monitoring locations of the network in the reporting period, which was mainly triggered by meteorological conditions unfavourable to pollutant dispersion.

During the reporting period, the network operated smoothly in accordance with the Quality Assurance/Quality Control ( QA/QC ) Operating Procedures, which ensure that air quality data from the monitoring stations are of a high degree of precision and accuracy,

The network is one of the major achievements of co-operation between the two sides in environmental protection. It comprises 16 automatic ambient monitoring stations scattering over the region, 13 of which are in the PRD Economic Zone – Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, Shunde, Huiyang, Panyu and Conghua – and three are in Tsuen Wan, Tung Chung and Tap Mun of Hong Kong. The Guangdong Provincial Environmental Monitoring Centre and EPD are respectively responsible for the co-ordination, management and operation of the monitoring stations of the two sides.

The environmental monitoring authorities of the two sides will continue to monitor the regional air quality and regularly announce the latest monitoring results. The monitoring results for the whole of 2008 are expected to be available in April 2009.

HK$1b Pledged To Improve City’s Environment

Oct 24th, 2008
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Angela Seet – SCMP | Updated on Oct 24, 2008

HK$1 billion would be allocated to the environmental and conservation fund to help combat pollution in Hong Kong, Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah said on Friday.

He said the Legislative Council had pledged this amount in its annual report, Environment Hong Kong 2008. This is published by the Environment Bureau and Environmental Protection Department (EPD).

But Mr Yau said public concern about environmental issues was growing.

“As Hong Kong becomes increasingly conscious of the need to protect the environment, the community also understands that raising the quality of life must be done in a sustainable way,” he said.

The territory is under more pressure to deal with serious environmental problems including â poor air quality, inadequate waste management, and damage to the natural environment.

The American Chamber of Commerce said in its annual environmental survey recently said 69 per cent of respondents said they knew professionals who are thinking of leaving Hong Kong (or have already left), and over half (56 per cent) knew professionals who had declined to come to the territory because of the unfavorable environment.

Mr Yau said the government was also working more closely with the mainland.

“Regionally, we are co-operating extensively with our counterparts in the mainland on a wide range of issues. We are also working to meet our international obligations on climate change,” he added.

Permanent Secretary for the Environment and Director of Environmental Protection Anissa Wong Sean-yee said: “There was intense concern in the community about air quality.

“It was being tackled from several angles, including the launch of an 18-month study to devise new air quality objectives and develop a long-term strategy for achieving them, Ms Wong said.

She said the government was also trying to identify more sustainable solutions to waste management.

However, green groups and medical academics in Hong Kong believe the government is still not doing enough to deal with environmental issues.

On the issue of air pollution, they argue it is time for the government to adopt World Health Organisation air-quality guidelines.

Anthony Hedley, professor of community medicine at the University of Hong Kong, said last month the territory and the Pearl River Delta were “among the most heavily polluted areas in the world”.

The report is available electronically from http://www.epd.gov.hk.

More details on Environment Hong Kong 2008, visit http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/misc/ehk08/en/vm/index.html

Time Running Out For Smog Review

Oct 8th, 2008
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Time running out for smog review
Government fails to make progress in its examination of air pollution standards

Cheung Chi-fai – SCMP – Updated on Oct 08, 2008

A year after the government began reviewing Hong Kong’s outdated air-pollution standards, officials have made no firm commitments to new air-quality objectives – and the exercise is due to end in less than three months.

The lack of progress has prompted suspicions among people involved in the review that the government plans to take a politically expedient shortcut instead of proposing tough, far-reaching objectives that will genuinely protect public health.

The review was launched in response to calls to replace the city’s 20-year-old air-quality objectives with the latest World Health Organisation guidelines, which are up to three times as tough as Hong Kong’s current standards. No country has yet adopted the WHO’s standards.

Sources close to the review say there are signs officials on the advisory panel want to roll out more politically acceptable options.

“You can’t only look at things you believe are workable since the issue in question now is public health, which offers little room for compromise,” said one of the sources, who asked to remain anonymous.

“Unless you have set the targets based on scientific evidence of health protection, there is no way to tell if the control measures at different stages are enough and timely.”

A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department would not directly answer that contention but said: “Consultants are still examining and evaluating the practicability and effectiveness of additional control measures available for ensuring the earliest possible improvement of our air quality.”

The department said it planned to hold a public forum to gather views on the review’s findings, with a public consultation next year.

Hong Kong’s 24-hour average standard for respirable suspended particles – one of the main health-threatening pollutants – is 180 micrograms per cubic metre, compared with the WHO’s guideline of 50.

The sources said the panel – comprising industry stakeholders, experts and officials – had spent too little time in the past year discussing targets and too much time gauging views on proposed control strategies.

Recommendations included increasing the use of natural gas in electricity generation to at least 50 per cent, more use of nuclear energy, electronic road pricing, phasing out polluting trucks and introducing low-emission zones – projected to reduce pollutants by tens of thousands of tonnes in the long term.

The sources said a commonly adopted review approach was to lay down targets adequate enough to protect health before considering measures – no matter what they were or how tough they were to achieve – to reach those targets in phases.

Citing the example of electronic road pricing, one of the sources said he saw no reason why 2015 had been earmarked for its implementation, given the direct health risks posed by polluting vehicles.

“When it comes to buying out chicken vendor licences for avian flu prevention, the government did it in two months,” the source said. “So I can’t see why it takes seven years for it to do road pricing.”

Earlier studies on the health effects of air pollution estimated it caused about 550 deaths a year and the use of 19,700 hospital bed days. Hongkongers’ life expectancy was estimated to be shortened by 16 months, on average, due to bad air.

The source said the current exercise should focus on laying down a clear institutional and legal framework in which to review air-quality standards based on scientific evidence. The principle of health protection should also be stated in the Air Pollution Control Ordinance.

Hahn Chu Hon-keung, Friends of the Earth’s environmental affairs manager, said the public’s health would be at risk if the government turned a blind eye to scientific fact.

“How can the government pacify the souls of those who have died of air pollution if it seeks to politicise health issues arising from air pollution, hoping to delay what it can do by evading fundamental issues?” he asked.

Mong Kok Pollution ‘Three Times’ WHO Levels

Oct 1st, 2008
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Peter So – SCMP – Updated on Oct 01, 2008

A green group and legislator warned the worsening air quality at tourist spots would scare off visitors, and are urging government to tighten the air-quality measuring standards.

Greenpeace have conducted on-site monitoring of the levels of respiratory suspended particulates (PM-10) and fine suspended particulates (PM-2.5) on Monday and Tuesday this week – prior to the peak tourist period of “Golden Week” – in a pedestrian area of Mong Kok.

The experiment discovered that the concentration levels of both particulates had three times exceeded the World Health Organisation’s most stringent standards. It means tourists and local residents’ health could be threatened if they are exposed to the area for several hours.

Paul Tse Wai-chun, a legislator in the tourism sector, said the poor air quality would damage the city’s image in the long run.

An earlier survey found 48.8 per cent of local tourist guides had received complaints from tourists about the city’s air pollution, Greenpeace said.

Meanwhile, Mr Tse called on the government to amend the air-quality measuring standards in accord of the WHO guidelines which [were] established in 2006.

The current government standards had been adopted since 1987, and it did not include PM-2.5 – which research suggests can penetrate deep into human lungs and have more severe health effects than larger particulates.

“The current standards are too loose and outdated,” said Mr Tse.

He said it is the responsibility of the government to update the Environmental Protection Department’s Air Pollution Index to let the public know the real situation of air pollution.

Mr Tse added that initiatives to improve the “wall effect” created by high-rise buildings and the control of traffic flow in busy districts should be undertaken.

Despite the government would commission a study to review the air-quality objectives and development a long-term management strategy, Greenpeace campaigner Prentice Koo Wai-muk said the government has no time-table to amend current standards to meet the WHO’s more stringent standards progressively.

And the green group would update a “Real Air Pollution Index” on the website – www.airtruth.org – which would monitor air pollutants including sulphur dioxide, ozone, respirable suspended particles and nitrogen dioxide with the updated WHO standards.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace has made travel tips on the city’s scenic spots with better air quality to tourists. Mr Tse said the government can promote those spots as a remedy.

Polluting Vehicles Must Be Driven Off The Road

Sep 27th, 2008
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Updated on Sep 27, 2008 – SCMP

We are accustomed to much talk about air pollution, but not enough action. The latest example is to be found in the Environmental Protection Department’s proposal to raise licence fees for owners of old, polluting commercial vehicles who do not switch to cleaner models. That sounds tough until you consider it is subject to discussion with the owners – and compare it with the compulsory phasing out of such vehicles in countries that adopt more stringent measures to improve air quality.

Roadside pollution is a major factor in poor air quality. The city’s commercial diesel fleet is a major culprit. To clean it up, the government offered owners the incentive of a grant towards replacement of pre-Euro-standard and Euro I light commercial vehicles with Euro IV models. This was a well-intentioned move. But owners have been slow to take up the offer. As a result nearly 50,000 of the older commercial vehicles remain on the roads.

The department has been overly generous in extending the deadline for claiming the grant for replacement of the dirtiest, pre-Euro polluters from next month to 2010 – the same as for Euro I and heavy vehicles. A higher licence fee for all old vehicles after that is a small price to impose for antisocial resistance to a proven air-quality initiative. Nonetheless, even this idea is bound to run into opposition from the transport trade and some lawmakers. The trade may have issues about the suitability of available Euro IV models. But these must be weighed against the public interest. This is a chance for the government to show a sense of urgency about pollution, something which is often lacking in efforts to improve our city’s air quality.

Studies for the semi-official Council for Sustainable Development show strong support among Hong Kong people for a range of initiatives. They include electronic road pricing to combat traffic congestion and roadside pollution, a colour-coded pollution warning system and a ban on leaving vehicle engines idling. Two years after the World Health Organisation issued new air-quality guidelines, we are still waiting for the government’s response. At least it is pressing ahead with a ban on idling engines. But until the legislation emerges intact from consultations with the transport trade, we must wait to see whether talk is translated into action.

For the sake of our health and quality of life, the time for talking is over. A tougher stance on older, polluting vehicles is needed.

Bracing For A Toxic Winter

Sep 22nd, 2008
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Updated on Sep 22, 2008 – SCMP

Here we go again. Another winter with terrible pollution.

I wonder if Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and the Environmental Protection Department could enlighten us as to why there is no significant change in the pollution levels.

I ask this because was not cleaning our air one of Mr Tsang’s main goals? Maybe he forgot.

However I did find a quote from his Action Blue Sky campaign: “Every small step taken by each individual to support the clean-air initiatives in our daily lives can help reduce air pollution.”

It seems as if this quote also applies to Mr Tsang’s approach to ridding our city of its pollution.

The EPD says too that it is taking vigorous steps to clean our air. Would the relevant authority tell us what these steps are?

From where I sit looking out my window all I see is grey hideous smog covering our city as usual.

Will it never change? I for one think not.

I do not think the powers that be really care.

Terry Scott, Sha Tin

Greens Urge Pollution Shake-Up

Sep 12th, 2008
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Joyce Ng – Updated on Sep 12, 2008

Greens have urged the government to step up the tightening of air-quality measuring standards – along international guidelines – after records in the past two months show air quality remains unsatisfactory.

The administration said it had been carrying out a review and would finalise the new measuring standards next year.

Three Greenpeace members yesterday climbed to the top of an air-monitoring station in Central and unveiled banners urging the government to revise its standards to reflect those introduced by the World Health Organisation in 2006.

The group found that in the past two months there had been 44 days when at least one monitoring station had recorded 24-hour-average concentrations of particulate matter that exceeded the WHO standards.

On one day in August, concentrations surpassed WHO standards in all but one of the 14 monitoring stations. In Causeway Bay, the measurement was 1.86 times the standard, but the official index classified the area as only having a “medium to high” level of pollution.

“The government standard, established in 1987, is too loose and outdated, failing to reflect the truth and protect our health,” Greenpeace campaigner Prentice Koo Wai-muk said.

Mr Koo urged the government to monitor minute particulates, known as PM-2.5, which research suggests can penetrate deep into human lungs and have more severe health effects than larger particulates.

In June last year, the Environmental Protection Department commissioned a study to review the air- quality objectives and develop a long-term management strategy.

A spokesman said the study was expected to be completed by the end of this year, after which the department would launch a public consultation and finalise the standards. The study would make reference to the WHO guidelines.

The existing index is calculated with reference to seven pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, respirable suspended particulates, carbon monoxide and ozone.

The WHO has recommended interim targets for governments to meet the more stringent standards progressively.

Hong Kong Skies Clear — Thanks to Nature, Not Games

Aug 28th, 2008
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By Aaron Pan and Wendy Leung – Bloomberg – Aug. 28

Tommy Chan, a street vendor in central Hong Kong, credits China’s drive to close factories across the country before the Olympics for the blue skies the city’s citizens have been enjoying.

“Maybe they shut down a few more this time for the Olympics because they wanted to give a good impression to the rest of the world,” said Chan, 65, who has been selling snacks on Queen’s Road for more than a decade.

He’s wrong. It’s not China, it’s nature.

The brown-tinged haze that typically obscures views in the city, which hosted the Olympic equestrian events, has been absent for the past two weeks due to seasonal wind and weather patterns, according to the Environmental Protection Department. The message: Olympics or no Olympics, foul air will return.

“Weather conditions in summer months favor dispersion of air pollutants,” said Felix Leung, a spokesman for the department. “With oceanic wind and good air dispersion, the current pollution levels are low.”

The Olympic Games ended Sunday with a closing ceremony in Beijing. In Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous region of China since British rule ended in 1997, the period was marked by a month of the lowest average pollution levels downtown this year.

Hong Kong’s government identifies cutting smog as a priority because poor air quality is harming the city’s reputation as a tourist destination and damaging the health of the population, according to a policy document released last year.

`Not Safest Air’

The government’s air pollution index in the city’s Central and Western districts fell to as low as 11 on Aug. 19, according to the environment department’s Web site. Today it was at 24 as of 2:30 p.m. local time.

Above 100, people with heart or lung problems are advised to avoid exercising outdoors. The index had reached 150 in July and climbed to records in some parts of the territory, raising concerns about the welfare of horses in the Olympics.

“It’s better than it has been,” said Anthony Hedley, a professor in the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. “But it’s not necessarily the safest air we could have.”

Around 220 horses from 42 countries were involved in this month’s equestrian events at the Sha Tin district of Hong Kong. The government had previously released a statement saying record pollution levels were “no cause for alarm” for the horses.

Smog May Return

“It’s seasonal,” said Edward Chan, Greenpeace campaign manager in Hong Kong. “Hong Kong’s air pollution levels are usually lower in July and August. The emission of pollutants never reduced. They will reappear again from September.”

Officials in Beijing, Hong Kong and other Olympic venues intensified efforts to combat pollution before the Games as China sought to showcase its emerging economy. Beijing removed cars and closed factories in a bid to improve air quality.

It’s difficult to say whether the measures helped, Hedley said. “They’ve had some pretty dirty air in the early part of the Olympics.”

In China’s capital, the air quality was at its best level in 10 years this month, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

“One swallow doesn’t make a summer,” said Hedley. “I’ll personally be very, very surprised if we see any improvement in the near future” in China’s urban air quality. “The growth of road vehicles is a tremendous source of mobile pollution.”

Beijing had spent $17 billion cutting air pollution for the Olympics, removing more than half the cars from its roads, halting construction work, and shutting factories.

Health Link

Air pollution causes about 10,000 deaths yearly in southern China’s Pearl River Delta region, including Hong Kong and Macau, according to a study released in June by a research group and three universities.

Research group Civic Exchange says the link between Hong Kong’s air quality and public health needs to be acknowledged and acted upon. The group has published suggestions for action the government can take to cut the smog.

Hong Kong had the worst March in 30 years in terms of visibility because of bad weather and pollution.

CLP Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong’s biggest power supplier, has won environmental approval to build a liquefied natural gas receiving terminal to help meet emissions targets.

The company plans to use non-carbon sources, including renewables, nuclear and hydropower, for 20 percent of total generation capacity by 2020, according to Chief Executive Officer Andrew Brandler.

Meantime, government predictions suggest Hong Kong residents should enjoy the breather while it lasts. The forecast is that air quality will remain “good” in coming days, Leung said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Pan in Hong Kong at Apan8@bloomberg.net; Wendy Leung in Hong Kong at wleung12@bloomberg.net.

Plastic Bag Tax Is Not The Way To Fight Pollution

Aug 11th, 2008
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Updated on Aug 11, 2008 – SCMP

I absolutely agree with Kevin McBarron (“Drastic changes needed to save environment”, August 6), in his response to Martin Brinkley’s letter (“Anti-plastic bag levy lobby must learn to live in the 21st century”, July 29), that a plastic bag ban is a placebo designed to fool people and convince them they are making a difference.

Mr Brinkley seems to have difficulty focusing only on the subject of the debate – supermarket plastic shopping bags. By emphatically defending the qualities of plastic bin-liners, he fails to understand why these are environmentally more harmful than the supermarket shopping bags.

Mr Brinkley suggested critics have implied that “all plastic bags are reused and ultimately serve as bin bags”; this is a distortion of what has been said. Various correspondents have always quoted the fact that 93 per cent of the respondents in the Environmental Protection Department’s (EPD) own survey reuse “supermarket plastic shopping bags” as rubbish bags, without using additional purpose-made plastic bin-liners. The same EPD survey also reveals supermarket plastic shopping bags only accounted for 20.3 per cent of all the bags disposed of in our landfills. It is known that plastic bags disposed of in landfills occupy less than 0.5 per cent of the total waste volume so they cannot be blamed for our landfill problems.

So, the more one reads the EPD’s public consultation report, the more one feels it has indeed no reasonable justifications for its so-called “environmental levy”.

This risible law on supermarket plastic shopping bags was blindly passed, even though such bags are positively contributing to the general environment.

The majority of Hong Kong citizens have been using and reusing them.

If supermarket plastic shopping bags were such environmental evils, why didn’t the government target those single-use plastic bin-liners also? Would environmental minister Edward Yau Tang-wah care to explain this?

Alex F. T. Chu, Clear Water Bay

This Is Our Fault

Jul 30th, 2008
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Updated on Jul 30, 2008 – SCMP

Isn’t this amazing? A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) (“Ocean winds credited with clearing skies”, July 25) said fine weather and “the measures implemented over the past years have also contributed to better air quality”.

It appeared that as of this Monday, these so-called measures had actually done very little. All pollution monitoring stations were high. And please do not tell me this pollution is coming from across the border. This is our own pollution created in Hong Kong.

I am not sure what “measures” the EPD is talking about, but I know many have not been implemented – no road pricing, no idling engine ban, no timetable for removing old polluting vehicles, no aggressive action on power plants. The list could go on and on.

So what measures is the EPD talking about? Could someone please enlighten us? And no matter what measures have been taken they certainly are not nearly enough.

Terry Scott, Sha Tin

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