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January 18th, 2012:

A breath of fresh air is on the way at last – if you can hold out to 2014.

Hong Kong Standard – 18 Jan 2012

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/newsimage/20120118/5_2012011723351586071yau.jpg

You Can Trust me, I am a highly paid Minister

I know the Air Pollution Ordinance allows me to change the AQO’s

in consultation with the Advisory Council on the Environment without going to Legco

but I will keep on telling Legco this will not be done until 2014 so we can build some

more infrastructure white elephants first.

Clearing the air

A breath of fresh air is on the way at last – if you can hold out to 2014.

Kenneth Foo

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A breath of fresh air is on the way at last – if you can hold out to 2014.

That’s the date for tying Hong Kong pollution gauges to air-quality standards of the World Health Organization.

And new measures to clear the foul air will include car-free zones, more railways and scrapping old polluting vehicles.

Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah yesterday revealed a series of steps to update the Air Quality Objectives.

Seven types of emissions will be monitored, and sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and lead will be subject to the most stringent standards of the WHO.

The remainder – including respirable and fine particulates – will be monitored according to the lower end of WHO standards. The objectives will be reviewed every five years.

But some experts slammed the moves as not tough enough.

Anthony Hedley, honorary professor of the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, accused the government of setting up ” lax and interim targets that masquerade as long-term solutions to a problem that requires more drastic action.”

Yau said the government will adopt the new standards as the benchmark for conducting environmental impact reports for its construction projects.

But there will be a three-year transitional period for private developments to adjust to the new rules.

“For the standards to be implemented, clearly defined goals, effective means and an emission- reduction package with the consensus of the people are of paramount importance,” Yau said.

He declined to estimate the social and economic costs of the new objectives.

They come as Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who had pledged to clean up the city’s air, enters the last months of his administration.

During his election campaign in 2006, he vowed a ” blue sky” policy.

While pollutants from the mainland have declined following an emission control pact with the Guangdong government, pollution from vehicles has hurt efforts.

The Airport Authority backed the proposed new objectives and will use them if the government allows it to build a third runway.

The authority said it will follow them for conducting air-quality assessments.

It also backed the retirement of old vehicles and a tree-planting campaign.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong General Chamber of Chamber supported the moves as it said pollution is the top environmental concern of business.

But campaigners are critical.

The head of environmental strategy at Civic Exchange, Mike Kilburn, said: ” It is a move that we have been waiting years for years but we are extremely disappointed as the objectives are not strict enough to make any positive impact on air quality.”

Hedley said public health safety demands that the cap on sulfur dioxide should be set much lower than the proposed rate of 125 micrograms per cubic meter.

The University of Hong Kong yesterday released an update of its Hedley Environmental Index, which shows the impact of pollution on public health.

The new index will have a map showing real-time levels of pollutants at 14 monitoring stations and will benchmark itself to WHO standards.

Based on calculations made from the index, experts have raised their estimates to an average of 3,200 deaths annually – compared with 1,000 made in the previous study.

Economic loss is estimated to be HK$40 billion a year.

Cities reluctant to lift haze on pollution data

South China Morning Post – 18 Jan 2012

Industrial areas like Shandong failed to comply with transparency rules on emissions in 2011, though cities like Beijing have opened up, study finds

Most mainland cities continued to shirk environmental transparency rules last year, with many industrial regions failing to make pollution data public, according to a recent study.

Although cities in the Pearl River and Yangtze River deltas and the region covering Beijing and Tianjin saw modest progress on transparency, disclosure was still limited in the vast central and western regions, based on the Pollution Information Transparency Index, an annual ranking of 113 mainland cities.

“The gap between eastern provinces and central and western regions is glaring in terms of pollution transparency, and it continues to widen,” said Ma Jun, head of Beijing’s Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, which jointly compiles the index with the US-based Natural Resources Defence Council.

The study concluded that in the past three years, local authorities had moved at a snail’s pace in helping rein in industrial polluters, despite widespread degradation and Beijing’s repeated pledges to promote more openness.

The government passed the first national regulation on information disclosure in May 2008.

Beijing, which ranked 7th in the transparency index last year, shooting up from 31st in 2010, was praised for a marked improvement in transparency, particularly the regular release of data on industrial polluters.

However, Chifeng in Inner Mongolia, Mianyang in Sichuan, Jinzhou in Liaoning, and Zhangjiajie in Hunan were listed among the worst in terms of granting the public adequate access to such data.

Most cities in Shandong, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Hunan – where emissions of pollutants rose rapidly in recent years – were found to have reneged on their commitment to disclose the information.

Shandong, the country’s third-largest provincial economy and the top emitter of sulphur dioxide and highly toxic nitrogen oxide, has done an exceptionally poor job in publishing pollution data. Its provincial ranking dropped from 12th in 2008 to 17th last year.

The only city in Shandong that made progress was Qingdao, which came in 10th overall. Many coastal cities also improved information dissemination.

“We strongly urge major cities in Shandong to strike a balance between economic growth and environmental protection,” Ma said.

The average transparency score for all cities last year was only 40 out of 100 – slightly higher than the average of 31 for 2008, but still lower than the passing score of 60.

Zhu Xiao, an associate law professor at Renmin University, said it was “appalling” that most cities had failed to abide by the information disclosure law more than three years after it was passed. “The so-called progress so far has been way too slow,” he said.

The transparency study found that local governments made little headway in taking action on pollution complaints and public requests for access to environmental data.

“It remains true that most public attempts to demand access to pollution information at local levels have failed” despite mounting grievances and rampant pollution scandals, said Dai Renhui, an environmental lawyer.

Liu Shuai, a former environmental official from Hunan, said the authorities would not dare show pollution data, fearing it would harm economic interests. “It is almost impossible to get pollution information through normal channels … and quite often you need to have guanxi [special connections],” he said.

jiangtao.shi@scmp.com

Purification fails to clear the air at Legco

South China Morning Post

It is not just pollution on the streets lawmakers have to worry about – even the air in the new Legislative Council complex could leave them coughing and rubbing their eyes.

A two-day air-purification exercise failed t clear toxic substances from the building in Admiralty, and the poor air has forced some legislators to move out, while others say they are concerned for the health of their staff.

The level of total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) – substances normally found in construction material such as wallpaper glue and oil paint – was more than 170 times above the safety level of 261 parts per billion (ppb) before the purification work, readings taken last week in the office of New People Power chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee showed. “I have relocated my staff to my other regional offices,” Ip said. “Although it is troublesome to commute … it is safer to stop using the office now. I have asthma.”

Readings taken over the past two mornings showed TVOC levels on four of the 13 floors of the Legco complex remained above the 261ppb level, with the figure on the fifth floor reaching 320. Liberal Party lawmaker Tommy Cheung Yu-yan and the Civic Party’s Tanya Chan said they recorded levels of more than 600ppb in their offices yesterday.

Ip recorded levels of 44,000ppb before the purification work.

Architectural Services Department staff said TVOC levels would be increased by human presence.

Ho Sai-king, assistant director of the department, said another reason for the high figures was because air purification was not carried out  during the day, when they relied on air-conditioning.

Toxic compounds in the building were mainly brought about by defective rectification and adjustment work during the Christmas holiday,” said Priscilla Tam, the department’s project director.

People’s Health Action chairman Dr Lo Wing-lok said toxic materials used in construction could lead to infertility if chronically inhaled.

“In the short term, TVOC will lead to sore eyes and irritation of the respiratory system,” Lo said. He advised members to use charcoal filters and open their office windows to improve air quality.

But for Chan, this was not an option.

“There is only one movable window in my office and due to its design we need to ask for Legco staff’s help whenever we open it,” she said.

“I am worried for my staff’s health and I have already asked a pregnant member of staff not to return to this office.”

tanna.chong@scmp.com

Tanya Chan fears poor air quality in the Legislative Council complex could lead to health problems.

Providing adequate recycling facilities far more effective than waste charges

South China Morning Post – 18 Jan 2012

With all the news about such issues as incinerators, landfills and excessive wastage, I am glad to see that someone is trying to move in the right direction [with proposed waste charges]. But the government appears to want to take more money from people without providing other means of handling waste.

Before the administration starts charging for handling refuse, it should be certain that it has ensured all possible means of recycling waste are available to people. And they must be adequate. The existing options are almost non-existent. In fact, at my place of work, we are only able to recycle plastic and cardboard, and organising the former proved difficult.

At my home, I have repeatedly asked if we can get recycling bins emptied more frequently or larger ones put in place as the paper one, in particular, is always full. My requests have been ignored.

Recycling of glass is almost impossible in Hong Kong. We generate tonnes of glass every month at my workplace.

I have tried to get a recycling scheme launched, but no one wants it. Even the organisation which has a recycling service in Wan Chai, while being supportive, has said there is just too much glass for recycling.

In some countries, people take glass to large containers outside supermarkets and it is sent back to the manufacturer for reuse. If that was done here, it would ease the pressure on our landfills.

While a waste charge will pay for part of the cost of dealing with refuse, it will not encourage citizens to recycle, as we have too few recycling facilities in Hong Kong.

Marco Veringa, Tung Chung


Clearly, he’s insincere

South China Morning Post – 18 Jan 2012

Why is it that whenever Environment Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah speaks about the quality of Hong Kong’s air you get the impression he means the opposite to what he says. At yesterday’s press conference announcing that the government would implement new air quality objectives (AQOs), he said it was, “A clear demonstration that the government and the community is very eager and keen to update the air quality objectives”.

This is presumably why, under his leadership, the government did nothing for two years after public consultation on the AQOs, and why his department dragged its feet so much it had to be told by the ombudsman to get a move on. Now it’s going to take another two years to implement them.

Yau reeks of insincerityIndeed, so sincere is the government that it will allow environmental impact assessments for infrastructure projects to use the current outdated air quality standards. This is not a government “eager and keen” to clean Hong Kong’s air.

It follows publication of a report on the government’s record on cleaning the air by the Civic Exchange think tank last week. It also coincides with the release of an updated Hedley Environmental Index, which reveals the average annual number of avoidable deaths attributable to air pollution over the last five years was 3,200, more than three times the previous annual estimates of 1,000 avoidable deaths.

“Even though the these new figures are substantially higher, the truly frightening thing about them is that they are still conservative figures that account for only short-term health impacts of Hong Kong’s air pollution,” said the index’s author, Anthony Hedley.

Clearing the air

Hong Kong Standard

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=11&art_id=118938&sid=35103473&con_type=3&d_str=20120118&fc=2

Kenneth Foo

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A breath of fresh air is on the way at last – if you can hold out to 2014.

That’s the date for tying Hong Kong pollution gauges to air-quality standards of the World Health Organization.Description: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/newsimage/20120118/5_2012011723351586071yau.jpg

And new measures to clear the foul air will include car-free zones, more railways and scrapping old polluting vehicles.

Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah yesterday revealed a series of steps to update the Air Quality Objectives.

Seven types of emissions will be monitored, and sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and lead will be subject to the most stringent standards of the WHO.

The remainder – including respirable and fine particulates – will be monitored according to the lower end of WHO standards. The objectives will be reviewed every five years.

But some experts slammed the moves as not tough enough.

Anthony Hedley, honorary professor of the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, accused the government of setting up ” lax and interim targets that masquerade as long-term solutions to a problem that requires more drastic action.”

Yau said the government will adopt the new standards as the benchmark for conducting environmental impact reports for its construction projects.

But there will be a three-year transitional period for private developments to adjust to the new rules.

“For the standards to be implemented, clearly defined goals, effective means and an emission- reduction package with the consensus of the people ar

e of paramount importance,” Yau said.

He declined to estimate the social and economic costs of the new objectives.

They come as Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who had pledged to clean up the city’s air, enters the last months of his administration.

During his election campaign in 2006, he vowed a ” blue sky” policy.

While pollutants from the mainland have declined following an emission control pact with the Guangdong government, pollution from vehicles has hurt efforts.

The Airport Authority backed the proposed new objectives and will use them if the government allows it to build a third runway.

The authority said it will follow them for conducting air-quality assessments.

It also backed the retirement of old vehicles and a tree-planting campaign.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong General Chamber of Chamber supported the moves as it said pollution is the top environmental concern of business.

But campaigners are critical.

The head of environmental strategy at Civic Exchange, Mike Kilburn, said: ” It is a move that we have been waiting years for years but we are extremely disappointed as the objectives are not strict enough to make any positive impact on air quality.”

Hedley said public health safety demands that the cap on sulfur dioxide should be set much lower than the proposed rate of 125 micrograms per cubic meter.

The University of Hong Kong yesterday released an update of its Hedley Environmental Index, which shows the impact of pollution on public health.

The new index will have a map showing real-time levels of pollutants at 14 monitoring stations and will benchmark itself to WHO standards.

Based on calculations made from the index, experts have raised their estimates to an average of 3,200 deaths annually – compared with 1,000 made in the previous study.

Economic loss is estimated to be HK$40 billion a year.

Download PDF : hkstandard

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=11&art_id=118938&sid=35
103473&con_type=3&d_str=20120118&fc=2

Pollution hits Hong Kong health, economy – Business 360 – CNN.com Blogs

http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/18/pollution-hits-hong-kong-health-economy/

Description: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/01/17/t1larg.hong.kong.pollution.afp.getty.file.jpg

January 18th, 2012

01:00 AM GMT

Pollution hits Hong Kong health, economy

Posted by:
Andrew StevensCNN Anchor

Hong Kong (CNN) – Hong Kong is one of the world’s richest cities. Almost one in 10 households boasts a millionaire. The government sits on a cash pile of about $80 billion. Yet Hong Kongers are choking, sometimes to death, on their own success.

A bold claim, but the statistics are compelling. The Hong Kong University School of Public Health has just unveiled a new real-time cost of pollution index. According to new research from the university and local think tank Civic Exchange, there are 3,200 avoidable deaths a year in Hong Kong due to air pollution – more than three times higher than previous estimates.

As I write this (at 7:15 p.m. HKT Tuesday) the index reports there has been seven preventable deaths and more than 14,000 preventable doctor’s visits in Hong Kong in the 19 hours beginning midnight on Monday. Preventable, because the bad air quality that researchers say was responsible, can be easily improved.

The HKU’s team leader Professor Anthony Hedley – 22 years as chairman of community medicine at the university – says the model they have developed is “state of the art.” Certainly the Hong Kong government has nothing like it. In fact, they have no statistics on pollution-related health costs, and their methods for measuring pollution are, say critics, well out of date.

But even with that technology, the quality of the air at roadside level in Hong Kong is rapidly deteriorating. Roadside pollution levels reached a record high last year. The number of days that pollution was rated “high” hit 20%. That is five times more than in 2005.

And the impact, according to the Hedley Index, has been hard. To take December as an example: 311 people died, nearly 800,000 visits were made to doctors and heathcare experts and days lost at work cost the economy about $60 million.

But clean air campaigners say the level of roadside pollution could be brought to within acceptable World Health Organisation levels within weeks.

Roadside pollution is the chief cause of pollution-related respiratory illness in Hong Kong, according to Mike Kilburn of the thinktank Civic Exchange. He says that if the government spent some of their cash reserves in a cash-for-clunkers scheme to take dirty trucks and buses off the streets, then air quality would improve dramatically. Instead the government is giving Hong Kongers a tax rebate of around $800 per person.

The government appears to have been stung into action by the release of the Hedley Index. A few hours after the index was released the Environmental Protection Department held a press conference to announce it was modifying its pollution monitoring to bring it in line with WHO standards.

But many clean air campaigners greeted that move was greeted with a “too little, too late” response. The question they want answered is why is a government as rich as Hong Kong’s is not spending more on a move which could have a big and rapid impact.

Posted by: Andrew StevensCNN Anchor
Filed under: Asia • environment • Hong Kong