http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/life/15-reasons-love-and-hate-hong-kong-handover-094326
6. We hate Hong Kong’s air quality
There’s a gorgeous skyline under that smog. We swear.
Hong Kong’s air was polluted in 1997. Today? It’s even worse.
Last year was Hong Kong’s most polluted on record, according to the Environmental Protection Department, which said that the Air Pollution Index exceeded 100 at roadside monitoring stations in Causeway Bay, Central and Mong Kok more than 20 percent of the time, compared to just two percent of the time in 2005.
Green activists say the main culprit is Hong Kong’s ageing fleet of trucks, buses and vans, which are polluting more as they grow older.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s air quality objectives still lag behind global standards, despite being updated by the government this year. Even India and Bangladesh have tougher air standards than Hong Kong.
Measures that were introduced to fight pollution have been ineffective. Last month, the South China Morning Post revealed that the government has quietly added more than 200 vehicles to the ban on idling engines, which a previous report said is rarely enforced in any case.
All of this comes at a very high price. Pollution is so bad that it kills 3,200 people per year, according to researchers from the University of Hong Kong and it costs the Hong Kong economy more than HK$40 billion a year.