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September 29th, 2011:

Canadian air quality among best in world

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Canadian+quality+among+best+world/5462860/story.html

Yet it will still affect health of thousands

BY CARMEN CHAI, POSTMEDIA NEWSSEPTEMBER 27, 2011

http://www.vancouversun.com/5462861.bin

If you thought it was a pain to drive in Montreal or Toronto, think again. According to results of a survey, it’s not nearly as frustrating as driving in Mexico City or Beijing. In its fourth annual study, IBM selected those Canadian cities among the world’s top 65 cities. Montreal was ranked as the least-painful city in which to drive, while Toronto was ranked the fifth-least painful. Mexico City, Shenzhen and Beijing were ranked the three worst cities in which to be behind the wheel.

Photograph by: Peter J. Thompson, Postmedia News, Postmedia News

A new World Health Organization database on air quality places Canada as one of the world’s top nations when it comes to clean air, but an expert says despite this country’s high scores, the air Canadians breathe will still cause health issues for thousands.

The international public health authority on Monday launched its first Air Quality database, which covers almost 1,100 cities in 91 countries, revealing the world’s hot spots for air pollution as well as regions with the highest health burden due to poor air quality. Data on particulate matter, a kind of air pollution that results in particles floating in the air, were compiled from national records, websites and scientific articles to create the database.

Compared with 90 other countries, Canada tied for third with Australia following Estonia and Mauritius in a ranking that looked at how many air pollutant particles were recorded in a cubic metre of air in each country.

“Canada did indeed score very well, which shows Canada has been taking good action over the years,” said Annette Pruss-Ustun, a scientist in the WHO’s public health and environment department.

However, Pruss-Ustun said even the smallest amounts of particulate matter in the air can affect someone’s health.

The WHO estimates that 1.3 million people – with more than half of them in developing countries – die every year from outdoor air pollution. About 2,400 people die every year in Canada as a result of air pollution.

The database looked at two sizes of particles – those that had a diameter of less than 2.5 microns (or PM2.5) and their bigger, less hazardous counterparts, which were at least 10 micrometres large (PM10). The individual particles aren’t visible – a 10-micrometre-wide particle is easily 50 to 100 times thinner than a strand of human hair.

In Canada, there was an annual average of 13 micrograms of PM10 particles per cubic metre of air while Estonia had 11 and the country with the most air pollution – Mongolia – had 279 large-sized particulates in a single cubic metre of air.

Sarnia, Ont., surrounded by oil refineries in a region that also shares a border with Michigan, topped the Canadian list. It documented 12.7 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic metre of air, which was on par with population-dense New York and was just 0.4 fewer than Madrid and foggy London.

Montreal, with 11.2 PM2.5 and Windsor, Ont., at 10.1, trailed Sarnia while Toronto, recorded 7.9 PM2.5, almost twice as much as Metro Vancouver.

TOP 10 COUNTRIES FOR AIR QUALITY

Includes the year of the last sample, followed by the number of micrograms of particulate matter at least 10 micrometres in size, per cubic metre of air.

Estonia 2008 11

Mauritius 2009 12

Canada 2008 13

Australia 2009 13

Ireland 2008 15

Bhutan 2006 18

Luxembourg 2008 18

Monaco 2008 18

United States 2008 18

Finland 2008 19

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/5462861.bin?size=620x400

If you thought it was a pain to drive in Montreal or Toronto, think again. According to results of a survey, it’s not nearly as frustrating as driving in Mexico City or Beijing. In its fourth annual study, IBM selected those Canadian cities among the world’s top 65 cities. Montreal was ranked as the least-painful city in which to drive, while Toronto was ranked the fifth-least painful. Mexico City, Shenzhen and Beijing were ranked the three worst cities in which to be behind the wheel.

Photograph by: Peter J. Thompson, Postmedia News, Postmedia News

Tackling the global clean air challenge

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2011/air_pollution_20110926/en/index.html

Zhuhai – Hong Kong Airport Joint Venture

http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/media/press-releases/pr_909.html

Zhuhai – Hong Kong Airport Joint Venture formed
23 November 2007) – Hong Kong-Zhuhai Airport Management Co. Ltd. (HKZAM),
the joint venture between the Zhuhai Municipal People’s Government and
Airport Authority Hong Kong that manages Zhuhai Airport, today celebrated
its first anniversary with a ceremony officiated by Central and Southern
Regional Administration of Civil Aviation of China Deputy Director-General
Xu Qiuju; Zhuhai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China
Secretary Deng Weilong; Airport Authority Chairman Dr Victor Fung and Chief
Executive Officer Stanley Hui; and HKZAM Chairman Raymond Lai and General
Manager Vivian Cheung.
HKZAM has managed Zhuhai Airport (ZHA) since 1 October 2006. In the joint
venture’s first year, air traffic at ZHA reached record levels, a series of
enhancement projects were completed, in-town check-in lounges opened, new
airlines began serving the airport, and Hong Kong and international shops
and restaurants opened at ZHA.

On 17 February 2006, the HK Airport Authority confirmed it will hold 55%
stake in a company that operates the Zhuhai Airport, with the remaining 45%
owned by Zhuhai Airport. The company will not own the assets or the
liabilities of the airport.
http://www.zhairport.com/

Hong Kong PM2.5 levels

USA EPA

The annual standard for PM2.5 is met whenever the 3 year average of the annual mean PM2.5 concentrations for designated monitoring sites in an area is less than or equal to 15.0 µg/m3.

http://www.epa.gov/pmdesignations/faq.htm

Hong Kong PM2.5 levels (note they deliberately have no monitoring station in Mongkok and Causeway Bay) attached (source HK EPD)

The levels are  2 ½ to 3 times higher than the US legal permissible amount.

PM2.5 is 1/30 the width of a human hair and enters into the lungs unhindered.

Bridge Timeline

Timeline of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Proposal
Year Events
1983 Gordon Wu proposes the idea of the bridge.
1989 Zhuhai publishes the Lingdingyang Bridge program.
1997 China’s central government shows support for the Lingdingyang Bridge program.
2002 (November) Zhu Rongji, the Premier of China at that time, shows support of Wu’s idea.
2003 The Chinese government shows support of the idea.
2003 (July) Donald Tsang, the Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong, goes to Beijing to meet with the Chinese government about the bridge.
2003 (August) The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Advance Work Coordination Group was established.
2007 (May) On 17 February 2006, the HK Airport Authority (ie the HK Government as sole shareholder) confirmed it will hold 55% stake in a company that operates the Zhuhai Airport, with the remaining 45% owned by Zhuhai Airport. The company will not own the assets or the liabilities of the airport. HK Government also announces its intention to get involved in the expansion of Nansha. Zhuhai airport serves Chinese Mainland destinations.

2007 May – Seabed feasibility study began.

2008 (August) China’s Central Government, the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau agreed to finance 42% of the total costs. The remaining 58% will consist of loans (approximately 22 billion yuan or 3.23 billion US dollars) from Bank of China.[4]
2009 (March) China’s Central Government, Hong Kong and Macau agrees to finance 22% of the total costs. The remaining 78% will consist of loans (approximately 57.3 billion yuan or 8.4 billion US dollars) from a consortium of banks led by the Bank of China.[5]
2009 (December) Construction of the bridge begins. Vice Premier of Chinese Government Li Keqiang took charge of the commencement ceremony.

Appeal Court overturns bridge ruling

www.rthk.org.hk

The Court of Appeal has overturned a lower court judgment blocking construction of the Hong Kong section of the bridge linking Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai. The lower court had ruled that the government failed to conduct a proper environmental impact assessment of the multi-billion dollar project because it failed to project air quality if the bridge was not built. But the three appeal court judges said a “with-or-without-bridge”

comparison of air quality was not necessary, since the administration was in any case required to minimise pollution.

Download PDF : cacv 84 of 2011 judgement[16]

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