Clear The Air News Blog Rotating Header Image

June 12th, 2012:

Health impact assessment of waste management facilities in three European countries

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet
Abstract
Background: Policies on waste disposal in Europe are heterogeneous and rapidly changing, with potential health
implications that are largely unknown. We conducted a health impact assessment of landfilling and incineration in
three European countries: Italy, Slovakia and England.
Methods: A total of 49 (Italy), 2 (Slovakia), and 11 (England) incinerators were operating in 2001 while for landfills
the figures were 619, 121 and 232, respectively. The study population consisted of residents living within 3 km of
an incinerator and 2 km of a landfill. Excess risk estimates from epidemiological studies were used, combined with
air pollution dispersion modelling for particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). For incinerators, we
estimated attributable cancer incidence and years of life lost (YoLL), while for landfills we estimated attributable
cases of congenital anomalies and low birth weight infants.
Results: About 1,000,000, 16,000, and 1,200,000 subjects lived close to incinerators in Italy, Slovakia and England,
respectively. The additional contribution to NO2 levels within a 3 km radius was 0.23, 0.15, and 0.14 μg/m3,
respectively. Lower values were found for PM10. Assuming that the incinerators continue to operate until 2020, we
are moderately confident that the annual number of cancer cases due to exposure in 2001-2020 will reach 11, 0,
and 7 in 2020 and then decline to 0 in the three countries in 2050. We are moderately confident that by 2050, the
attributable impact on the 2001 cohort of residents will be 3,621 (Italy), 37 (Slovakia) and 3,966 (England) YoLL. The
total exposed population to landfills was 1,350,000, 329,000, and 1,425,000 subjects, respectively. We are moderately
confident that the annual additional cases of congenital anomalies up to 2030 will be approximately 2, 2, and 3
whereas there will be 42, 13, and 59 additional low-birth weight newborns, respectively.
Conclusions: The current health impacts of landfilling and incineration can be characterized as moderate when
compared to other sources of environmental pollution, e.g. traffic or industrial emissions, that have an impact on
public health. There are several uncertainties and critical assumptions in the assessment model, but it provides
insight into the relative health impact attributable to waste management.

AbstractBackground: Policies on waste disposal in Europe are heterogeneous and rapidly changing, with potential healthimplications that are largely unknown. We conducted a health impact assessment of landfilling and incineration inthree European countries: Italy, Slovakia and England.Methods: A total of 49 (Italy), 2 (Slovakia), and 11 (England) incinerators were operating in 2001 while for landfillsthe figures were 619, 121 and 232, respectively. The study population consisted of residents living within 3 km ofan incinerator and 2 km of a landfill. Excess risk estimates from epidemiological studies were used, combined withair pollution dispersion modelling for particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). For incinerators, weestimated attributable cancer incidence and years of life lost (YoLL), while for landfills we estimated attributablecases of congenital anomalies and low birth weight infants.Results: About 1,000,000, 16,000, and 1,200,000 subjects lived close to incinerators in Italy, Slovakia and England,respectively. The additional contribution to NO2 levels within a 3 km radius was 0.23, 0.15, and 0.14 μg/m3,respectively. Lower values were found for PM10. Assuming that the incinerators continue to operate until 2020, weare moderately confident that the annual number of cancer cases due to exposure in 2001-2020 will reach 11, 0,and 7 in 2020 and then decline to 0 in the three countries in 2050. We are moderately confident that by 2050, theattributable impact on the 2001 cohort of residents will be 3,621 (Italy), 37 (Slovakia) and 3,966 (England) YoLL. Thetotal exposed population to landfills was 1,350,000, 329,000, and 1,425,000 subjects, respectively. We are moderatelyconfident that the annual additional cases of congenital anomalies up to 2030 will be approximately 2, 2, and 3whereas there will be 42, 13, and 59 additional low-birth weight newborns, respectively.Conclusions: The current health impacts of landfilling and incineration can be characterized as moderate whencompared to other sources of environmental pollution, e.g. traffic or industrial emissions, that have an impact onpublic health. There are several uncertainties and critical assumptions in the assessment model, but it providesinsight into the relative health impact attributable to waste management.

Download PDF : health impact waste management europe

Chinese airlines seek foreign cabin crew – Telegraph

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/9316320/Chinese-airlines-seek-foreign-cabin-crew.html

Chinese airlines seek foreign cabin crew

China’s major airlines are looking for foreign cabin crew in a bid to become more international as they expand flights across the globe.

China to build 70 airports by 2015

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9323617/China-to-build-70-airports-by-2015.html

China will build 70 new airports within the next three years, the head of the country’s aviation watchdog has said, as part of ambitious expansion plans in the industry despite an economic slowdown.

The number of airports in China could reach more than 230 by the end of 2015 Photo: Getty Images

AFP

8:40AM BST 11 Jun 2012

Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) chief Li Jiaxiang also reiterated pledges that carriers would buy on average more than 300 planes a year from 2011 to 2015 – the country’s current five-year economic plan.

“China plans to build 70 new airports in the next few years and to expand 100 existing airports,” he told delegates in Beijing at the annual general meeting of global airline industry group IATA.

He added that the number of airports would reach more than 230 by the end of 2015, and that Chinese carriers would operate around 4,700 planes by then.

The aggressive expansion comes after IATA head Tony Tyler warned that global airline profits would more than halve this year on the back of surging oil prices and the eurozone crisis.

The airline industry in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to turn in a $2bn (£1.3bn) profit in 2012, according to IATA figures released on the sidelines of the AGM, but this still represents less than half of the region’s 2011 profit.

The group did not provide specific projections for the China market – which has so far experienced booming growth due to rising demand for air travel as increasingly affluent Chinese people travel more frequently.

But it said part of the reason behind the projected drop in profits in Asia-Pacific was a slowdown in the Indian and Chinese economies.

Growth in China, the world’s second largest economy, slowed to 8.1pc in the first quarter of 2012 – its slowest pace in nearly three years.

But Ma Kai, a state councillor in charge of economic development, said at the AGM that China’s aviation market had the “biggest growth potential” in the world.

“Ever since 2005, the industry has realised an annual growth rate of 17.5pc,” he said.

“We have contributed to the current development of growth in the global civil aviation industry and will continue to do so for the time to come.”

Li added that by the end of 2011, China had 2,888 commercial planes in operation and its aviation industry employed 1.2m people.

Majority of Chinese Prioritize Environment Over Economy

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

http://www.gallup.com/poll/155102/Majority-Chinese-Prioritize-Environment-Economy.aspx?version=print

Monday, June 11, 2012 Updated 06:00 PM ET

June 8, 2012

Majority of Chinese Prioritize Environment Over Economy

Yet China faces challenges with rapid urbanization

by Daniela Yu and Anita Pugliese

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fifty-seven percent of Chinese adults surveyed in 2011 — before the country’s economic slowdown grabbed headlines — prioritized protecting the environment, even at the risk of curbing economic growth. About one in five believed economic growth is more important. Chinese attitudes are typical of those in other emerging-market economies, where residents sided with the environment over the economy in earlier surveys.

Description: Economic growth vs. environment in BRIC countries

Similarly, Americans historically prioritized environment protection over economic growth from 1985 to 2008. However, economic growth has taken priority since the economic recession deepened in 2009. If China’s economic troubles worsen, residents’ attitudes could change too.

Among the 22% of Chinese who did not choose the environment or the economy, about half of them (12%) answered they don’t know. Those who did not have an opinion tended to be poor rural residents with no education beyond elementary school, perhaps indicating their lack of awareness about environmental issues. The 9% who answered neither tended to be wealthy urban residents with high education. For them, it might be a dilemma of choosing one over the other because both the economy and the environment are extremely important.

More Environmental Challenges Lie in Urban Areas

More than three in four (77%) Chinese are satisfied with current efforts to preserve the environment. Residents living in the urban areas, the hub of much of China’s industrial activity, however, are significantly less satisfied than their rural counterparts with these efforts, as well as the quality of the air and water where they live. With good reason: The World Health Organization finds air pollution in Shanghai and Beijing is double or even triple the severity it is in London or Los Angeles. Further, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection finds groundwater at 57% of its monitoring sites in cities is polluted or extremely polluted.

Description: Environmental satisfaction in urban and rual China

The enormity of China’s challenges as it attempts to balance rapid urbanization, industrial growth, and environmental concerns is even more apparent in its largest cities. In Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, residents’ satisfaction with the efforts to preserve the environment as well as the quality of air and water significantly trails the national average. Consequently, residents are more likely to say that priority should be given to protecting the environment, even if it risks economic growth.

Description: Environmental satisfaction in China's largest cities

Implications

China still lags behind developed countries in terms of efforts to protect the environment. At the same time, it is investing heavily in new energy sources and low-carbon technologies that could satisfy the substantial power demand from rapid urbanization while protecting the environment and reducing overreliance on coal.

Without aggressive strategies to combat pollution, China’s environmental problems will likely only worsen as its urban areas continue to expand. Comprehensive urbanization policies that focus on conservation and the efficient use of natural resources such as energy, air, water, and land will be necessary to ensure the sustainability and quality of these resources in the future. On a regional level, cities such as Qingdao, Tianjin, and Shenyang are emerging as role models for urban economic and environmental development. They have all have shown leadership in developing best practices in successful green urban planning.

For complete data sets or custom research from the more than 150 countries Gallup continually surveys, please contactSocialandEconomicAnalysis@gallup.com or call 202.715.3030.

Survey Methods

Results in China are based on face-to-face and telephone interviews with approximately 4,200 adults in 2011. In 2010, the results are based on face-to-face interviews with approximately 1,000 adults in Brazil, 2,000 adults in Russia, and 6,000 adults in India. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error in 2011 ranged from ± 2.0 percentage points to ±3.5 percentage points.

For more complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup’s Country Data Set details.

Click below to get more stories, RSS feeds, and e-mail alerts on these topics:

Copyright © 2012 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://wsdc.gallup.com/dcsdh1hzt5k8osnaj9x0uqyt0_9i8v/njs.gif?dcsuri=/nojavascript&WT.js=No&WT.tv=8.0.3” alt=”” border=”0″ width=”1″ height=”1″ />

Gallup Poll: 57 Percent Of Chinese Believe Environmental Protection Should Be Their Country’s Top Priority

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/11/497718/gallup-poll-57-percent-of-chinese-believe-environmental-protection-should-be-their-countrys-top-priority/

Gallup Poll: 57 Percent Of Chinese Believe Environmental Protection Should Be Their Country’s Top Priority

By Climate Guest Blogger on Jun 11, 2012 at 4:26 pm

by Melanie Hart

Description: http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Chinapollution-621x407-300x196.jpg

Gallup has just released new poll results showing that a majority of Chinese citizens care more about cleaning up the environment than they do about growing the economy. Among Chinese adults Gallup surveyed last year, 57 percent believe that protecting the environment should be their country’s priority, even if improving environmental standards slows the pace of economic growth. Only 21 percent believe that economic growth is more important than environmental protection.

These poll results reflect a growing trend in Chinese society. As China climbs up the economic ladder, its citizens are increasingly deciding that economic growth is not enough. Being able to buy bigger houses and higher-end consumer goods is nice, but quality of life is about more than purchasing power. Real quality of life also requires good public health. In China, public health is suffering due to rampant pollution, and the citizens are desperate to change that.

Here in the United States, some anti-regulatory politicians like to claim that removing or weakening our environmental standards would make the United States a more prosperous country.

In reality, however, it doesn’t pay to be rich if you can’t be healthy too. No one knows that more than the Chinese. Ask the Chinese citizens living in cancer villages if losing their friends and relatives to cancer is a worthwhile price to pay for the dirty factory that provides jobs but poisons their villages with lead, cadmium, and other carcinogens.

Since China is not a democracy, Chinese citizens cannot vote their local politicians out of office when local governments allow businesses to emit harmful pollutants that put public health at risk. When that happens, the best option Chinese citizens have is to expose the situation through the media and hope someone in Beijing hears their story and decides to intervene.

Talking about environmental problems in China is tricky, however. Technically, the Chinese government encourages journalists to expose pollution scandals. Beijing generally finds that exposure to be useful, because it is hard for them to get accurate environmental data through official channels. They even have special transparency regulations that are supposed to give Chinese journalists access to environmental impact assessments, pollution monitoring results, and other government data.

Although Chinese leaders support exposing pollution problems in most cases, they are not okay with exposure that damages the central government’s image or sparks mass protests. They are, after all, an authoritarian regime. Because of that, they have “state secrets” regulations that make Chinese journalists liable for how citizens react to the stories they publish. If a media exposé about lead pollution sparks a protest, the journalist who wrote the story could go to jail. That means journalists have to self-sensor their environmental coverage, and citizens do not always have an outlet for exposing this information.

Environmental problems are increasingly seen as life-or-death, however. And that means many people in China are deciding they would rather risk going to jail than watch their children suffer irrevocable neurological damage from lead, mercury, and other pollutants.

When the media cannot fix their problems, Chinese citizens are increasingly taking to the streets in mass protests. We saw this in action in November 2010 when hundreds of citizens protested local government plans to build a waste incinerator near their homes in southern China’s Guangzhou City. We saw it again in December 2011 in Haimen, when Chinese citizens protested plans to build a coal plant.

Public anger is also erupting in the nation’s capital. This past winter, air pollution was so bad in Beijing, pilots could not see the runway at China’s national airport, and air traffic ground to a halt. Despite the obviously horrific conditions, Beijing’s city government rated the pollution as minor. Beijing residents flooded the internet with comments calling on their government to fess up to the fact that conditions were horrible and they were endangering public health. The citizens who posted those comments took a personal risk — any of them could have been punished for subversion, or in Chinese terminology, endangering”‘socialstability

.” Since there were so many of them, however, Beijing officials were forced to side with the people and take action to address the pollution. Now Beijing is planning to close down the city’s coal plants and switch over to natural gas.

When it comes to environmental pollution, the Chinese people are getting serious. They have to — that is the only way they can protect themselves and their children from serious harm.

Here in the United States, we should do everything we can to support their cause. We should also remember that we are lucky to live in a democracy where many of these battles have already been fought and won. That is one of our greatest assets, and it is something many in China are willing to risk everything to achieve.

Melanie Hart is a Policy Analyst for Chinese Climate and Energy Policy at the Center for American Progress

Residents in Guangdong say No to the Garbage Plant

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

From: James Middleton [mailto:dynamco@netvigator.com]
Sent: 12 June, 2012 08:12
To: Edward Yau Tang Wah EPD; EPD HKG; ceeo@ce-elect-office.hk; kswong@rlphk.com; martin.putnam@hkairport.com; elvis_au@epd.gov.hk
Subject: Residents in Guangdong say No to the Garbage Plant

Secretary for the Environment

Mr Edward Yau Tang Wah

Dear Sir,

In the recent EIA documents for the proposed Shek Kwu Chau incinerator project we could not find any reference to the following  imminent  incinerator projects

just across the border from Hong Kong.

Since your staff Mr Elvis Au has frequently stated in public that the majority of the winds across Hong Kong are northerlies for most of the year, it stands to reason that these upcoming 24/7 projects will have a serious  influence on transboundary pollution levels in Hong Kong which is already affected  by marine shipping pollution levels without any Emissions Control Area in place.

Why were these (easily searched) major polluting projects omitted by the consultants from the EIA on the Shek Kwu Chau  incinerator?

Yours faithfully,

James Middleton

Chairman

www.cleartheair.org.hk

http://www.martingmbh.de/index_en.php?level=1&CatID=9&inhalt_id=10&presse=84&do=showDetail#84

23/04/2012 Foshan Nanhai I, China
Extension by 3 lines
In March 2012, our cooperation partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (MHIEC) was awarded the contract to supply the technical equipment for the extension of the Foshan Nanhai I plant. Three MARTIN reverse-acting grates with a width of 9.48 m will be used. The throughput is 3 x 500 t/d. (1500 t/d)

Start-up of the 3 combustion lines is planned for 2013.
07/12/2011 Dongguan Downtown, China
Order for delivery of three grate systems
Our licensee, Chongqing Sanfeng Covanta Environmental Industry Co., Ltd., has been awarded a new contract to supply grate systems. Three combustion systems will be supplied to the waste-to-energy plant in Dongguan Downtown (Guangdong province), People`s Republic of China. The grates with a throughput of 600 t/d each will be manufactured in China and will use the MARTIN SITY 2000 technology. (1800 t/d)
19/10/2009 Dongguan, China
Order for delivery of 3 grate systems
Our licensee, Chongqing Luneng Environment Industry Co., Ltd., has been awarded a new contract to supply grate systems. Three combustion systems will be supplied to the waste-to-energy plant in Dongguan (Guangdong province), People’s Republic of China. The grates will be manufactured in China and will use MARTIN SITY 2000 technology. Each grate will have a throughput rate of 600 t/d. (1800 t/d)

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/714075.shtml
Residents in Guangdong say no to the garbage plant

Global Times | 2012-6-11 1:50:02
By Tu Lei

Hundreds of residents from two cities in South China’s Guangdong Province again took to the street in the provincial capital of Guangzhou Sunday to show their concern over a plan to build a garbage incinerator, according to several postings on Sina Weibo Sunday.

“We do not want the garbage incinerator built in our city, and we have no better option but to stage this rally,” a participant surnamed Hu from Qingyuan, a city neighboring Guangzhou, told the Global Times Sunday.

Hu said the Fenshui garbage incineration project near the boundary of the neighboring cities of Qingyuan and Guangzhou has vexed residents for its possible impact on resident’s health and the environment.

“Only two months are left for the provincial environmental protection bureau to make a final decision on its location. The company they’ve selected also isn’t qualified to build the plant, and there has been no open bidding for the project.” “Some 20 villages and three large residential communities are within 3 kilometers of the plant,” according to a posting from a Weibo account that was opened to oppose the plant.

There are nine villages within 2.5 kilometers of the plant, the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily reported on May 30. The first rally took place on the morning of May 23, when some 200 residents came to Guangzhou to show their displeasure. This time, “There were nearly 1,000 residents joining the gathering that lasted six hours,” Hu said.

“Burying the garbage will take too much land, while an incineration plant is quite scientific and popular overseas,” an official also surnamed Hu with the urban management commission of Guangzhou, told the Global Times. “We have made a thorough argument for picking the site and assessed the impact on the environment.”

The Standing Committee of Guangzhou City People’s Congress said in April that the city will build six garbage incineration plants over the next three years, and the location is to be finalized this year.

The city government said on May 22 that Guangzhou’s population is expected to be 18 million in five years, and they will produce 18,000 tons of garbage a day, far surpassing the city’s current handling capacity.

http://titan-machinery.com/en/industry-news/shenzhen-waste-incinerator/

23/04/2012 Foshan Nanhai I, China
Extension by 3 lines
In March 2012, our cooperation partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (MHIEC) was awarded the contract to supply the technical equipment for the extension of the Foshan Nanhai I plant. Three MARTIN reverse-acting grates with a width of 9.48 m will be used. The throughput is 3 x 500 t/d. (1500 t/d)

Start-up of the 3 combustion lines is planned for 2013.
07/12/2011 Dongguan Downtown, China
Order for delivery of three grate systems
Our licensee, Chongqing Sanfeng Covanta Environmental Industry Co., Ltd., has been awarded a new contract to supply grate systems. Three combustion systems will be supplied to the waste-to-energy plant in Dongguan Downtown (Guangdong province), People`s Republic of China. The grates with a throughput of 600 t/d each will be manufactured in China and will use the MARTIN SITY 2000 technology. (1800 t/d)
19/10/2009 Dongguan, China
Order for delivery of 3 grate systems
Our licensee, Chongqing Luneng Environment Industry Co., Ltd., has been awarded a new contract to supply grate systems. Three combustion systems will be supplied to the waste-to-energy plant in Dongguan (Guangdong province), People’s Republic of China. The grates will be manufactured in China and will use MARTIN SITY 2000 technology. Each grate will have a throughput rate of 600 t/d. (1800 t/d)

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/714075.shtml
Residents in Guangdong say no to the garbage plant

Global Times | 2012-6-11 1:50:02
By Tu Lei

Hundreds of residents from two cities in South China’s Guangdong Province again took to the street in the provincial capital of Guangzhou Sunday to show their concern over a plan to build a garbage incinerator, according to several postings on Sina Weibo Sunday.

“We do not want the garbage incinerator built in our city, and we have no better option but to stage this rally,” a participant surnamed Hu from Qingyuan, a city neighboring Guangzhou, told the Global Times Sunday.

Hu said the Fenshui garbage incineration project near the boundary of the neighboring cities of Qingyuan and Guangzhou has vexed residents for its possible impact on resident’s health and the environment.

“Only two months are left for the provincial environmental protection bureau to make a final decision on its location. The company they’ve selected also isn’t qualified to build the plant, and there has been no open bidding for the project.” “Some 20 villages and three large residential communities are within 3 kilometers of the plant,” according to a posting from a Weibo account that was opened to oppose the plant.

There are nine villages within 2.5 kilometers of the plant, the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily reported on May 30. The first rally took place on the morning of May 23, when some 200 residents came to Guangzhou to show their displeasure. This time, “There were nearly 1,000 residents joining the gathering that lasted six hours,” Hu said.

“Burying the garbage will take too much land, while an incineration plant is quite scientific and popular overseas,” an official also surnamed Hu with the urban management commission of Guangzhou, told the Global Times. “We have made a thorough argument for picking the site and assessed the impact on the environment.”

The Standing Committee of Guangzhou City People’s Congress said in April that the city will build six garbage incineration plants over the next three years, and the location is to be finalized this year.

The city government said on May 22 that Guangzhou’s population is expected to be 18 million in five years, and they will produce 18,000 tons of garbage a day, far surpassing the city’s current handling capacity.

http://titan-machinery.com/en/industry-news/shenzhen-waste-incinerator/

China’s Largest Waste-To-Energy System Heads For Shenzhen

Posted in: Industry news | January 26, 2011 at 3:06 pm

2 comments

The second phase of the Bao’an Waste-to-Energy Plant, which is invested in by Shenzhen Energy and Environment Company, is expected to be the largest of its kind in China with a daily production capacity of 4,200 tons.

It is learned that Shenzhen produces 12,074 tons of waste are being yielded in Shenzhen every day. Though city has set up seven waste incineration power plants with a total capacity of 4,875 tons per day, it can still not meet the increasing demand.

At present, SEEC incinerates 2,450 tons of waste each day, which accounts for 50% of the city’s total waste incineration. In addition, the company has three projects under construction which are expected to add a daily capacity of 6,300 tons for the city.

Set up in 1997, SEEC is one of the major waste disposal companies in Shenzhen.

China’s Incinerators Loom as a Global Hazard

Timothy O’Rourke for The New York Times

A worker shoveled trash at the Baoan incinerator in Shenzhen, which also generates power.

O

By KEITH BRADSHER

Published: August 11, 2009

SHENZHEN, China— In this sprawling metropolis in southeastern China stand two hulking brown buildings erected by a private company, the Longgang trash incinerators. They can be smelled a mile away and pour out so much dark smoke and hazardous chemicals that hundreds of local residents recently staged an all-day sit-in, demanding that the incinerators be cleaner and that a planned third incinerator not be built nearby.

Timothy O’Rourke for The New York Times

A truck delivering trash to the Baoan incinerator in Shenzhen, China. The incinerator is relatively clean, but is also costly.

Enlarge This Image

Timothy O’Rourke for The New York Times

Zhong Rigang, the chief engineer at the Baoan incinerator, saw little enthusiasm among the public for recycling.

Enlarge This Image

Timothy O’Rourke for The New York Times

The Longgang incinerators in Shenzhen were the focus of a recent all-day sit-in by hundreds of local residents.

A blog about energy, the environment and the bottom line.

Go to Blog »

After surpassing the United States as the world’s largest producer of household garbage, China has embarked on a vast program to build incinerators as landfills run out of space. But these incinerators have become a growing source of toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous system.

And these pollutants, particularly long-lasting substances like dioxin and mercury, are dangerous not only in China, a growing body of atmospheric research based on satellite observations suggests. They float on air currents across the Pacific to American shores.

Chinese incinerators can be better. At the other end of Shenzhen from Longgang, no smoke is visible from the towering smokestack of the Baoan incinerator, built by a company owned by the municipal government. Government tests show that it emits virtually no dioxin and other pollutants.

But the Baoan incinerator cost 10 times as much as the Longgang incinerators, per ton of trash-burning capacity.

The difference between the Baoan and Longgang incinerators lies at the center of a growing controversy in China. Incinerators are being built to wildly different standards across the country and even across cities like Shenzhen. For years Chinese government regulators have discussed the need to impose tighter limits on emissions. But they have done nothing because of a bureaucratic turf war, a Chinese government official and Chinese incineration experts said.

The Chinese government is struggling to cope with the rapidly rising mountains of trash generated as the world’s most populated country has raced from poverty to rampant consumerism. Beijing officials warned in June that all of the city’s landfills would run out of space within five years.

The governments of several cities with especially affluent, well-educated citizens, including Beijing and Shanghai, are setting pollution standards as strict as Europe’s. Despite those standards, protests against planned incinerators broke out this spring in Beijing and Shanghai as well as Shenzhen.

Increasingly outspoken residents in big cities are deeply distrustful that incinerators will be built and operated to international standards. “It’s hard to say whether this standard will be reached — maybe the incinerator is designed to reach this benchmark, but how do we know it will be properly operated?” said Zhao Yong, a computer server engineer who has become a neighborhood activist in Beijing against plans for an incinerator there.

Yet far dirtier incinerators continue to be built in inland cities where residents have shown little awareness of pollution.

Studies at the University of Washington and the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., have estimated that a sixth of the mercury now falling on North American lakes comes from Asia, particularly China, mainly from coal-fired plants and smelters but also from incinerators. Pollution from incinerators also tends to be high in toxic metals like cadmium.

Incinerators play the most important role in emissions of dioxin. Little research has been done on dioxin crossing the Pacific. But analyses of similar chemicals have shown that they can travel very long distances.

A 2005 report from the World Bank warned that if China built incinerators rapidly and did not limit their emissions, worldwide atmospheric levels of dioxin could double. China has since slowed its construction of incinerators and limited their emissions somewhat, but the World Bank has yet to do a follow-up report.

Airborne dioxin is not the only problem from incinerators. The ash left over after combustion is laced with dioxin and other pollutants. Zhong Rigang, the chief engineer at the Baoan incinerator here, said that his operation sent its ash to a special landfill designed to cope with toxic waste. But an academic paper last year by Nie Yongfeng, a Tsinghua University professor and government adviser who sees a need for more incinerators, said that most municipal landfills for toxic waste lacked room for the ash, so the ash was dumped.

Trash incinerators have two advantages that have prompted Japan and much of Europe to embrace them: they occupy much less real estate than landfills, and the heat from burning trash can be used to generate electricity. The Baoan incinerator generates enough power to light 40,000 households.

And landfills have their own environmental hazards. Decay in landfills also releases large quantities of methane, a powerful global warming gas, said Robert McIlvaine, president of McIlvaine Company, an energy consulting firm that calculates the relative costs of addressing disparate environmental hazards. Methane from landfills is a far bigger problem in China than toxic pollutants from incinerators, particularly modern incinerators like those in Baoan, he said.

China’s national regulations still allow incinerators to emit 10 times as much dioxin as incinerators in the European Union; American standards are similar to those in Europe. Tightening of China’s national standards has been stuck for three years in a bureaucratic war between the environment ministry and the main economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, said a Beijing official who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject publicly.

The agencies agree that tighter standards on dioxin emissions are needed. They disagree on whether the environment ministry should have the power to stop incinerator projects that do not meet tighter standards, the official said, adding that the planning agency wants to retain the power to decide which projects go ahead.

Yan Jianhua, the director of the solid waste treatment expert group in Zhejiang province, a center of incinerator equipment manufacturing in China, defended the industry’s record on dioxin, saying that households that burn their trash outdoors emit far more dioxin.

“Open burning is a bigger problem according to our research,” Professor Yan said, adding that what China really needs is better trash collection so that garbage can be disposed of more reliably.

Critics and admirers of incinerators alike call for more recycling and reduced use of packaging as ways to reduce the daily volume of municipal garbage. Even when not recycled, sorted trash is easier for incinerators to burn cleanly, because the temperature in the furnace can be adjusted more precisely to minimize the formation of dioxin.

Yet the Chinese public has

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/business/energy-environment/12incinerate.html?pagewanted=all

shown little enthusiasm for recycling. As Mr. Zhong, the engineer at the Baoan incinerator, put it, “No one really cares.”

Keppel Seghers is currently one of the leading providers for imported WTE solutions in China. Its in-house technology is supplied for the expansion of an existing WTE plant in Shenzhen, Guangdong.

Keppel Seghers’ technology will enable the facility to treat an additional 3,000 tonnes to the existing 1,200 tonnes of municipal waste per day. When completed, the WTE plant will be the largest in China with an eventual capacity to treat 4,200 tonnes of municipal waste per day.

The existing WTE plant’s key components were also provided by Keppel Seghers in 1999, when it was built. Back then, the plant was also the largest WTE plant in China.

Heated opposition feared for city’s incinerator plan

Updated: 2011-09-17 08:06

By Zheng Caixiong (China Daily)

Print Mail Large Medium Small 0

SHENZHEN, Guangdong – The government of the special economic zone is having trouble finding a location for the construction of a gigantic garbage incinerator.

Lu Ruifeng, executive deputy mayor of Shenzhen, said the city plans to build the world’s largest garbage incinerator, with a designed capacity to handle more than 5,000 tons of garbage a day.

“But it is really a headache to choose the right location for the project,” Lu said.

Lu made the remarks while meeting with Chen Xiaochuan, vice-chairwoman of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, who was leading a group of deputies from the province’s legislative body to inspect the city’s environmental protection work early this week.

Although Lu did not reveal what the problems were, insiders said the city government worried the project could meet opposition from people living near any chosen location.

In Guangzhou, about 100 kilometers away from Shenzhen, the city government had to postpone construction of a similar project in its Panyu district last year because of residents’ strong opposition.

After the Guangzhou government chose a site in the Panyu district to build its garbage incinerator in late 2009, the overwhelming majority of nearby residents signed a petition to oppose the project. They were worried it would pollute the environment and harm their health.

As a result, the Guangdong provincial government had to make concession and announced it would postpone construction.

The Guangzhou garbage incinerator project had also stirred controversy among environmental experts and scholars.

Zhao Zhangyuan, a retired researcher for the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, said incineration will cause pollution.

“Burning garbage produces many poisonous gases, even when advanced technology and equipment are used,” said Zhao, who strongly opposed construction of the project.

Guangzhou authorities are now looking for a different site to build their garbage incinerator.

But Xu Haiyun, chief engineer with the China Urban Construction Design and Research Institute, said garbage incinerators will not pose health risks because the gases discharged would be strictly in line with the country’s standards.

“There is a garbage incinerator in downtown Bonn, Germany, and similar facilities have been constructed in Japan,” Xu said.

Lu Ruifeng promised Shenzhen’s garbage incinerator would use the world’s most advanced technologies, equipment and management system and uphold the strictest discharge standards to avoid polluting the environment.

“Shenzhen, a densely populated city that lacks land resources, will treat its waste mainly through burning in the future, in addition to burying and composting,” Lu said.

According to Lu, Shenzhen’s treatment rate of consumer waste will exceed 80 percent in 2015.

In addition, a number of garbage treatment facilities will be built or expanded in the coming years.

Yin Qingwei, a Shenzhen white-collar worker, said the city needs to build a big garbage incinerator to deal with its growing garbage problem.

“But the government should carefully consider the public opinion and seek suggestions from residents to choose the right location,” he said.

Construction should not start before the majority of residents have reached an agreement with the government, he added.

China Daily

http://news.newclear.server279.com/?p=3958

Shenzhen plans world’s largest incinerator

Apr 6th, 2012 by Editor.

Choi Chi-yuk and Cheung Chi-fai

Sep 15, 2011

Shenzhen plans to build the “world’s largest” rubbish incinerator, capable of processing 5,000 tonnes a day, in an effort to cope with the almost five million tonnes of domestic waste produced by the city each year.

Lu Ruifeng, the city’s executive vice-mayor, told a group of Guangdong provincial People’s Congress delegates on Tuesday that because its landfills could no longer cope with the growing trash pile produced by its 13 million residents, the city was planning to build the world’s largest incinerator, the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily reported yesterday.

Lu said public consultations had been held on site selection. He admitted that where to put the incinerator was one of the most challenging problems for the project.

The Nanfang Daily said Shenzhen planned to build three waste incinerators by 2015 to burn 80 per cent of the city’s rubbish. It said two of the plants would be in Laohukeng and Nanshan district, both in the west of the city, with the third to be built at an unspecified site in the city’s east.

A report in the Guangzhou Daily said Shenzhen had three waste incineration plants in the pipeline, capable of processing a total of 6,300 tonnes of rubbish a day.

Lu said that in order to meet environmental protection standards for the incinerator’s emissions – smell, liquid, ash residue and airborne ash particles – it would make use of mechanical grate technology to improve combustion. It would also adopt advanced management and stick to the highest global air quality standards, the Nanfang Daily reported.

It said Shenzhen was dealing with 4.8 million tonnes of trash a year.

Michelle Au Wing-tze, senior environmental affairs officer at Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong), said Shenzhen was taking a wrong path in waste management.

“Guangzhou has just started to ask people to separate and recycle waste, but Shenzhen is heading in the opposite direction,” she said.

“It is definitely not an image boost to tell others the incinerator will be the world’s largest.”

Au said that if the incinerator had any adverse environmental impacts, like dioxin pollution, it would not just hit Shenzhen and Hong Kong but could spread far beyond the region.

Last year, the daily per capita waste disposal rate in Shenzhen was 1.26kg, compared to 1.28kgin Hong Kong and 0.77kg in Guangzhou.

Hong Kong is also planning to build a large incinerator, with a capacity of 3,000 tonnes a day, on a reclaimed site at Shek Kwu Chau, south of Lantau Island. Environment officials have not ruled out the need to build an extra incinerator to cope with mounting waste.

Waste incineration projects are a sensitive issue in Guangdong, with proposals for new plants often met by fierce local demonstrations, forcing plans to be put on hold. In January, more than 1,000 residents from two districts of Guangzhou staged separate protests against incinerator projects near their neighbourhoods.

Growing environmental awareness among mainlanders as living standards have improved in recent years have fuelled more protests over environmental concerns.

Copyright (c) 2011. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120506-344097.html

ASIAONE NEWS SINGAPORE

Loud bangs then fire at Tuas incinerator

AsiaOne

Sunday, May 06, 2012

SINGAPORE – An incinerator at a waste management plant in Tuas caught fire early Sunday morning. According to witness statements, three loud bangs were heard before flames were sighted.

An eyewitness told the Straits Times that technicians on duty were transporting oil sludge into a funnel leading to the incinerator when they heard the three loud explosive bangs, followed by the flames.

The technicians then sounded the alarm and left the control room, which reportedly caught fire just seconds later.

The roof also partially collapsed, reported the English daily.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said they were alerted to the fire at around 12.50am at Eco SWM, in Tuas. Deploying three fire engines, SCDF officers put out the fire within 30 minutes of their arrival.

A SCDF spokesperson said that all 25 employees who were onsite when the incident happened are accounted for. No injuries have been reported.

dassa@sph.com.sg

Download PDF : SingaporeExpertreport

Backchat

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

http://programme.rthk.hk/channel/radio/programme.php?name=radio3/backchat&d=2012-06-12&p=514&e=181345&m=episode

listen to Backchat discussion on the Third runway

Hong Kong Airport Runway May Cause Pollution to Exceed Limit – Bloomberg

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-09/hong-kong-airport-runway-may-cause-pollution-to-exceed-limit-1-.html

Hong Kong Airport Runway May Cause Pollution to Exceed Limit

By Jasmine Wang – Aug 9, 2011 8:59 PM GMT+0800

Hong Kong airport’s proposed HK$136 billion ($17 billion) third runway may cause the level of pollutant nitrogen dioxide in the facility’s vicinity to exceed the limit set by the city’s government, according to a study.

Annual cumulative concentrations of the gas in the airport and nearby areas may range between 16.5 micrograms and 81.1 micrograms per cubic meter, Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Ltd., appointed by the Airport Authority Hong Kong to assess the effect on air quality, said in its report. The government has proposed halving the legal limit for nitrogen dioxide, found in vehicle exhaust, in Hong Kong to 40 micrograms per cubic meter.

The consultant’s 2010 report was one of the eight posted on the authority’s website yesterday as it performs a three-month public consultation to end Sept. 2. Another report by HSBC Holdings Plc said rising construction costs may increase the authority’s pre-financing cash shortfall.

The air quality report was based on a maximum projected capacity of 620,000 annual flight movements. The authority will conduct a more detailed assessment and ensure the project complies with the law, it said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News questions. The authority also said HSBC’s report “has sought to establish a prudent financing plan such that the underlying financial profile of the AAHK remains robust.”

Cash Shortfall

The authority’s HK$112.8 billion pre-financing cash shortfall for the new runway may increase to HK$133 billion because of rising construction costs, according to a May 31 report by HSBC, a financial adviser for the project.

The third runway will cost HK$86.2 billion in 2010 prices, equivalent to HK$136.2 billion with inflation, according to the authority’s estimates.

Asia’s third-busiest airfield is considering the new runway to serve an estimated 97 million passengers by 2030. The project, which may take about nine years to complete, will also help handle 8.9 million tons of cargo.

The airport may need to reclaim about 650 hectares of land from the sea to build the runway. Groups including Civic Party lawmakers have opposed the plan on concern about its effect on marine wildlife, including the endangered pink dolphin.

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (293), the city’s biggest carrier, said on June 2 that it gave “full and unequivocal backing” for the third runway. The city’s airport boosted passenger numbers about 10 percent last year to 50.9 million, trailing only Beijing and Tokyo Haneda in Asia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jasmine Wang in Hong Kong at jwang513@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Neil Denslow at ndenslow@bloomberg.net

The Donald Tsang administration toxic legacy – what hapened to Ministerial Accountability ?

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

From: James Middleton [mailto:dynamco@netvigator.com]
Sent: 11 June, 2012 13:44
To: ‘sisi.Tang@thomsonreuters.com‘
Cc: hrmrajh@gmail.com
Subject: : The Donald Tsang administration toxic legacy – what hapened to Ministerial Accountability ?

Hello Sisi

Further to your request here is our quote and some useful links for you to follow.

Regards

James

CleaR the aiR Quote:

Where is the ministerial accountability for Edward Yau Tang Wah who has taken 60 overseas trips in 59 months at public expense  when our environment is in tatters, with more concrete white elephants proposed and roadside pollution worsened, no recycling at source legislation in place nor considered and a petulant holier-than-thou attitude when the Panel on Environmental Affairs unanimously rejected his incinerator funding proposal ?  Perhaps Yau travelled overseas so much to get some clean fresh air ?  What use was his ‘Greentech Mission’ trip last month to Europe which encompassed amongst other parts of the jaunt, a visit to a Scottish distillery and how will that benefit Hong Kong’s environment and the health of the public here?

Meanwhile and divisively the EPD’s offshoot ‘Green’ organisations the  Environment and Conservation Fund  and the Environmental Campaign Committee are surreptitiously funding trips at $ 1000 a head to Singapore and to Taiwan (trips actually worth HKD 8,000 per head) for 50 persons per group  to view incinerators (and submit a friendly report)  as a stab in the back of the Environment Panel’s decision to reject the She Kwu Chau incinerator funding. Yau should be fired for incompetence and a failure of his portfolio together with his overall leader who has little care for the health of the people of Hong Kong.  Recent issued reports from the PRD show that the PRD air quality has improved, which means our major pollution sources here have grown worse especially at roadside during Yau’s tenure. We have no Emissions Control Area for shipping whilst almost 1/3 of local particulates and 25% of NOx and SOx entering Hong Kong are from marine emissions from vessels burning 2.75-4% high sulphur bunker fuel, whilst our vehicular fuel is regulated in parts per million. The current administration has a Duty of Care for the health of the public of Hong Kong but has shown a total lack of political will in addressing Hong Kong’s air pollution problems.

James Middleton

Chairman

www.cleartheair.org.hk

Tel 26930136

http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=1044&pageid=24&pagename=Society

Inside Asia Back to Society

Hong Kong’s Air Pollution Causes Some to Think Twice About Living There

Kari Jensen January 19th 2009

Description: Asia Topics - Hong Kong air pollution

Air pollution in Hong Kong has gotten so bad that some businesses are losing staff and customers. A city watchdog group says the government is not doing enough to reduce pollution, much of which comes from mainland China.

Hong Kong’s skies were clear and blue when Alan Knight first arrived there in 1993. But, within 12 years, the city had become so polluted there were days when he could not see through the gray haze across Victoria Harbor.

Knight’s work requires travel. He is a journalist and professor. He also has a lung condition, which usually is dormant. But it flared, a few years back, when he returned to Hong Kong. He was hospitalized and received high dosages of antibiotics. Once he was back in Brisbane, Australia the condition resolved itself.

Knight says he is looking to move back to Asia, but not Hong Kong.

“I think the atmosphere in Hong Kong is really toxic,” he said. “I’d love to come back to Hong Kong. I love the city. I love the people. I love the place. But, quite frankly, I’m likely to live in Singapore.”
The city’s poor air quality is affecting both its residents’ health and its economy. A recent survey shows one in five Hong Kongers may leave the city, because of air pollution. Air pollution costs more than $283 million annually in health care costs and lost job prospects.

Michael DeGolyer is a professor in international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. He conducted the air pollution survey for Civic Exchange, a public policy think tank. He says about 30 percent of those who are seriously considering leaving because of bad air are mid- to high-level professionals. DeGolyer says more than 97 percent of those surveyed were ethnic Chinese. He says air pollution is not just an expat concern. “Everybody breathes air,” he said. “And, it’s become a concern to everybody now.”

In southern China, factories are closing down, in part because of tougher environmental standards. Still, Chinese factories in the Pearl River Delta north of Hong Kong are the city’s major source of pollution.

But half the time, Hong Kong’s pollution comes directly from its power plants, vehicular emissions and marine traffic.In the city’s urban areas, tall buildings trap particulates, instead of allowing them to be dispersed by the wind. Residents live close to the roadways and are constantly exposed. Local activists are looking to other major cities to see what they did to curtail pollution. DeGolyer says research in California shows money spent on air pollution abatement was more than recovered by reduced health care costs and improved worker productivity.

Civic Exchange is pushing Hong Kong to impose stricter air quality standards. It wants the environmental standards to also protect public health. It hosted a clean air conference recently, where international researchers, scientists, economists and academics discussed green measures.

Hong Kong’s present guidelines have not been updated for more than two decades. The city’s air quality, in terms of sulfur content, is much less stringent than World Health Organization guidelines set in 2006. A Hong Kong legislature’s environmental affairs committee plans to review air quality guidelines and possibly adopt more stringent standards this year. Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department has made efforts to curtail pollution. It has tightened vehicle and power plant emissions and introduced cleaner fuels.

Although sulfur dioxide emissions in the city have dropped back to almost 1997 levels, they are still well above the government’s emission-reduction targets. Air pollution worsened this past year. Government detractors say, in terms of addressing air pollution, the legislature favors business, especially the transport lobby.

Businesses are quick to defend themselves. Al Hendricks works for a company that manufactures energy-saving equipment. He says industry is less resistant to change than government. “There’s people here who just don’t want to make changes and are either afraid to or just don’t want to rock the boat for whatever reason,” he said. Hendricks says the government needs to offer incentives if it wants businesses to enforce environmental standards.

As upper-level professionals leave Hong Kong for jobs in less-polluted cities, businesses may be forced to change without government prodding. The demand for top talent across Asia is high.

It is a delicate balance. By imposing stricter standards, Hong Kong may lose business to nearby Chinese ports and cities, which have looser standards. But, by not cleaning up its air, Hong Kong is already losing professionals and businesses.

The Hong Kong government is working with the government of southern Guangdong province to reduce regional emissions. Guangdong has agreed to ban the construction of new coal-fired or oil-fired power plants. Still, even if Hong Kong addresses its air pollution, it can not force Guangdong to take the same measures.

Kari Jensen is a VOA correspondent in Hong Kong.

http://news.newclear.server279.com/?p=4392

http://www.expatinfodesk.com/news/2010/12/24/is-hong-kong-losing-its-expat-appeal/ note 2010

Are expats leaving Hong Kong over lack of schools?

expatmedicalinsurance.blogspot.com/…/are-expats–leaving–ho…

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

16 Jan 2012 – Are expats leaving Hong Kong over lack of schools? … The number of expats moving to the former British colony has surged in the last two years as Europe’s struggling …. Is Hong Kong’s pollution driving expats away?

They should fire the invalid Education Minister also !

http://gohongkong.about.com/od/healthandsaftey/a/ong_Kong_Pollution.htm

1.     PDF]

Pollution a Major Barrier to Attracting Top Talent to Hong Kong …

hudson.sg/…/emp_asia_Press_Release_Air_Pollution_effecting_HK.p…

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat –
12 Sep 2006 – Forty-four percent of executives cite air pollution as a contributing factor causing expatriates in their companies to leave Hong Kong; …

ST : Expats leaving HK for ‘cleaner’ pastures – Singapore Property …

sgpropertypeople.blogspot.com/…/st-expats–leaving-hk-for-cl… –

19 May 2010 – ST : Expats leaving HK for ‘cleaner’ pastures … Prof DeGolyer said he believed that Hong Kong’s pollution woes, if left unchecked, could …

Is Hong Kong’s pollution driving expats away? : British Expat …

britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=744676 –

11 Jan

I’ve never been to Hong Kong, but it’s one of those places on my “would … of companies in Hong Kong saw pollution as a problem in recruiting and …. to make us leave HK (unless our kids had specific health issues which the

1.    Teaching in Hong Kong and Pollution – Expat Forum

www.expatforum.com/expats/hong–kong–expat…expats…hon… – Cached

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

10 posts – 17 Nov 2011

Hong Kong Expat Forum for Expats Living in Hong Kong The Hong Kong … of pollution and that many are leaving Hong Kong because of this.

Get more discussion results

Cable reference id: #07HONGKONG2313

www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=07HONGKONG2313 – Cached

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

23 Aug 2011 – Subject, Hong Kong Air Pollution Deterring Expats, Says Amcham Survey … -More foreign professionals are thinking of leaving Hong Kong, …

A Million Plan On Leaving Polluted Hong Kong | Asian Correspondent

asiancorrespondent.com/…/a-million-plan-on-leaving–pollute… – Cached

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

15 Jan 2009 – Hong Kong air pollution continues to bring trouble to its locals as a recent … It’s not just the expats who are considering leaving Hong Kong, …

Singapore is Asia’s ‘most liveable city’EC – Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk › Finance › Personal Finance › Offshore Finance

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

24 Apr 2012 – Pollution is Hong Kong’s “big Achilles heel”, according to Lee Quane of … expat living in Hong Kong, said: “While I have no plans to leave Hong …
May 8, 2012, 6:00 PM HKT

Businesses’ Biggest Hong Kong Complaints: Pollution, Schools http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/05/08/businesses-biggest-hong-kong-complaints-pollution-schools/

CHINA REAL TIME REPORT HOME PAGE »

Bloomberg

International Commerce Centre, center, stands surrounded by residential and commercial buildings on the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong, China, on April 2, 2012.

More In Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s government likes to boast of its “stable, business-friendly” environment. But a rising number of companies say there’s plenty of room for improvement.

A new survey conducted by the British Chamber of Commerce and marketing consultants TNS finds that while 96% of the Chamber’s 500 member companies call the business environment “somewhat” or “very” satisfactory, the performance of the city’s government comes in for a drubbing.

Only 48% of members polled believe that the government has the right strategy to maintain and enhance Hong Kong’s economic competitiveness, a drop of 11% from last year.

For example, though English remains an official language in this former British colony, which returned to Chinese control in 1997, just half of Chamber members were satisfied with the government’s efforts to provide multilingual graduates and managers to meet Hong Kong’s economic needs.

Likewise, businesses were roundly critical of the government’s efforts to combat air pollution. Of the respondents, 94% reported being disappointed by the government’s efforts to improve Hong Kong’s dismal air quality, a source of particular concern for employees with young children. That number has risen significantly since 2010, the Chamber reports.

Another perennial frustration for expatriates based in Hong Kong—fierce competition for the limited number of international school slots available–also ranked high on issues of concern. Though the number of companies with employees whose children are stuck on a waiting list to enter schools in Hong Kong dropped to 15%, the number of expatriates who plan to try and relocate their families to Hong Kong has also sharply declined. In the coming year, just one-fifth of companies polled intend to bring employees to Hong Kong along with their families—a drop of nearly 25% from last year.

For Chamber members, the top two grievances about doing business in Hong Kong are the city’s “declining environment,” especially when it comes to air quality, and the lack of primary school slots in international schools. “The Hong Kong government seems not to recognize [both issues] are harming the competitiveness of Hong Kong when compared to regional competitors such as Singapore,” says Christopher Hammerbeck, the Chamber’s executive director.

– Te-Ping Chen. Follow her on Twitter @tepingchen

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/04/30/no-easy-scapegoat-for-hong-kong-pollution/

No Easy Scapegoat for Hong Kong Pollution

Bloomberg News

Pedestrians walk past the Central Roadside Air Quality Monitoring Station in the Central district of Hong Kong, China, on Feb. 18, 2012.

More In Hong Kong

Hong Kong has long preferred to blame its smoggy skies on polluting factories just over the border in mainland China. But new analysis suggests that the blame for much of the city’s pollution rests squarely on Hong Kong’s shoulders.

According to just-released data from a regional government report, air quality in the Pearl River Delta area has continuously improved over the past year, thanks to initiatives to encourage better energy efficiency and cleaner industrial production. By contrast, Hong Kong’s own air quality, notably roadside pollution, has actually grown worse, says Clean Air Network, a local environmental group.

In the delta region last year, the average level of nitrogen dioxide, a key measure of roadside pollution (it’s the stuff that makes you cough when you pass by a bus trailing a cloud of smelly exhaust), was down by 13% from 2006 levels. But in Hong Kong, the levels measured at roadside monitoring stations during that same time period were actually up 28%, says the environmental group, citing data from Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department.

Indeed, for concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, Hong Kong ranks second among 32 major Chinese cities, surpassing even notoriously smoggy Beijing, according to official Chinese data.

“Hong Kong’s government is lagging behind the mainland here,” says Jia Yuling, the Clean Air Network’s education and research manager. For example, she notes, though Hong Kong has taken steps to adopt more stringent air-quality measures, “it was only after the same announcement in mainland China that Hong Kong’s government decided, ‘Oh, we need to catch up,’ and did the same.” For a city that’s wealthier than its mainland counterparts, says Ms. Jia, Hong Kong’s lack of leadership is disappointing.

To be sure, Hong Kong has taken steps to combat air pollution, including new measures to tamp down on sulfur dioxide emissions from local factories. But there’s plenty of room for improvement, says Ms. Jia, especially on issues of pollution from boats and ships, now one of the biggest contributors to Hong Kong’s air-quality problem.

At this point, Hong Kong’s air has deteriorated to the point that it’s literally driving expatriates away from the region. Surveys have repeatedly found that the city’s noxious skies are hurting its competitiveness, with many expatriates preferring such greener, cleaner choices as Singapore. Tourists who make their way up to the city’s Peak to enjoy its famous views often find that the sought-after vistas are obscured by a dense blanket of smog.

The Clean Air Network says Hong Kong’s rising levels of car ownership and the aging of its vehicle fleet are partly to blame for its bad air. Across the border, a number of cities are taking on the problem of dirty old cars, and environmental activists say Hong Kong should do more to join them. For example, last week, Beijing’s Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau announced it would begin paying city residents and businesses between 2,500 yuan and 14,500 yuan ($397 to $2,301) to retire an aging or heavy-diesel vehicle. Other cities, such as Shenzhen, have offered similar deals.

Asked to comment on the issue, Hong Kong’s environmental-protection department hadn’t responded as of Monday afternoon.

“We can’t keep blaming regional air quality any more for our problems,” says Ms. Jia. “Hong Kong needs to do more to address local pollution on its own.”
– Te-Ping Chen. Follow her on Twitter @tepingchen

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-pollution-hong-kong-idUSTRE80803J20120109

Hong Kong air pollution at worst levels ever: report

  • ·        Print

RELATED NEWS

RELATED TOPICS

A worker at ”sky100”, the 100th floor of the International Commerce Centre (ICC), looks at Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour March 23, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip

HONG KONG | Sun Jan 8, 2012 9:43pm EST

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Air pollution levels in Hong Kong were the worst ever last year, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday, a finding that may further undermine the city’s role as an Asian financial centre as business executives relocate because of health concerns.

Worsening air quality in Hong Kong caused by vehicle emissions and industrial pollution from the neighboring Pearl River Delta is already forcing many in the financial community to move to Singapore.

Readings at three roadside monitoring stations in Hong Kong’s Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok commercial districts showed that pollution levels were above the 100 mark more than 20 percent of the time, the newspaper said, citing the city’s Environmental Protection Department.

This was 10 times worse than in 2005, when very high readings were recorded only 2 percent of the time, it said.

The station in Central business district, home to the Asia headquarters of global banks such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, showed the worst figures, with excessive readings a quarter of the time, the report said.

Hourly readings are taken at the roadside stations throughout the year on major pollutants such as respirable suspended particles and nitrogen oxides. A reading above 100 means at least one pollutant fails air quality objectives.

Environmentalists renewed their calls for the immediate introduction of new air quality objectives, claiming that the government had deliberately delayed their introduction to ease the way for major infrastructure projects, the newspaper said.

The department blamed the figures on unfavourable weather conditions, worsening background pollution and the number of ageing vehicles on streets.

The newspaper quoted the government as saying a number of measures were being considered to help improve air quality, and new air quality objectives would be discussed by Hong Kong’s legislature soon.

(Reporting by Charlie Zhu; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Chris Lewis)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/9004912/Is-Hong-Kongs-pollution-driving-expats-away.html

Is Hong Kong’s pollution driving expats away?

The news that air pollution levels in Hong Kong were at a record high last year comes as little surprise to the expats who live in its smog

A ferry crosses Hong Kong harbour under heavy smog Photo: Paul Brown/Rex Features

By Leah Hyslop

9:20AM GMT 11 Jan 2012

According to a report published in The South China Morning Post earlier this week, air quality in Hong Kong was 10 times worse last year than in 2005, with pollution levels recorded at three roadside monitor stations above the “very high” mark more than 20 per cent of the time.

Such heavy pollution has obvious implications for the health of Hong Kong’s residents, who it is feared are at an increased risk of everything from respiratory problems to cancer, but also casts a shadow over the city-state’s future as a top international business centre.

Hong Kong is home to thousands of expat workers, many filling crucial positions in its thriving banking and finance sector, but the relentless grey haze which hangs over the former British colony could be increasingly driving those who can afford it to settle elsewhere.

Last year, a report from office supplier Regus revealed that an astonishing three-quarters of companies in Hong Kong saw pollution as a problem in recruiting and retaining international talent, while a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong found that nearly half (48 per cent) of its members knew of professionals who had left to escape the contaminated air.

Sylvia, a British banker who did not wish to give her full name, claims to know many expats who have returned to their home countries because of pollution, or asked for transfers to other major Asian hubs such as Singapore – largely, she says, due to health concerns.

“A friend of mine used to get plenty of headaches and migraines when he lived in Hong Kong for a few years; when he returned to the US the migraines stopped overnight,” she explains. “Another friend’s husband has a job here in Hong Kong but since his wife and daughter have asthma, they live in Singapore and he commutes here during the week.”

For those expats who choose to remain in Hong Kong, the desire to escape the smog often dictates where they live. Teacher Linda Kernan, originally from Kent, has ended up seeking refuge on one of Hong Kong’s outlying islands, where there are no cars. Even so, on some days from her flat she can barely see the high rise buildings just a few miles away over the sea.

“The air quality does seem to be getting worse,” she says. “When I arrived here 17 years ago, there were many more days with a blue sky but now they are few and far between. Before Christmas I had to spend about five hours walking around with a friend, waiting for his evening flight. When we walked through town I could feel my throat getting steadily worse and by evening It was painful to talk. It starts with a prickly throat and develops into a sore throat if you stay on the busy roads.

“I have four years left to retirement, and I would love to stay in Hong Kong, but I think I will have to put my health first and leave.”

So why exactly is Hong Kong’s pollution so bad? A reason often cited is its location at the mouth of China’s Pearl River Delta region, a booming economic centre home to over 70,000 factories, but the city’s own industrial emissions, heavy traffic and tall buildings which trap contaminated air in a so-called “canyon effect” are also major factors. The government has taken some steps to combat the problem in recent years – including introducing a ban on leaving stationary vehicles’ engines running for more than three minutes – but local pressure groups such as the Clean Air Network insist that more changes are necessary.

How much damage the pollution issue could end up wreaking on Hong Kong’s attractiveness as a business centre is subject to hot debate. Sylvia admits that there is a long-term risk that “Hong Kong will lose top talent and industry to its rival Singapore,” but believes that even if many expats leave, the economy will not be seriously hurt.

“There’s hundreds of Westerners arriving every day,” she says simply. “The downturn in Europe means there are more and more people seeking work, and more companies relocating their staff here. Hong Kong’s economy has always been better than most; it experiences downturns but then it recovers very quickly.”

Hans Leijten, the regional vice president for Regus in East Asia is not so sure however. “Singapore is seen as a much greener and cleaner alternative, and it is gaining a competitive edge particularly when it comes to expats with families,” he warns.

“While Hong Kong’s economy and job market are still extremely strong and it remains a top destination for expatriates, the quality of the environment and its effect on their health is certainly weighing heavily on the minds of those working there.”

Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network results for 2011 announced today

http://7thspace.com/headlines/411027/regional_air_quality_monitoring_network_results_for_2011_announced_today.html

BUT OUR ROADSIDE POLLUTION INCREASED MEANING THE SOURCES ARE LOCAL AND CANOT JUST BE BLAMED ON PRD – WE HAVE NO EMISSIONS CONTROL AREA FOR SHIPPING WHICH CONTRIBUTES 31% 23% AND 26% OF LOCAL RESPIRABLE PARTICULATES, SOx AND NOx and shoulder to shoulder glass wall buildings create the urban canyons to trap the pollutants.

Hong Kong (HKSAR) – The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government and the Department of Environmental Protection of Guangdong Province (GDEPD) today (April 26) released the report on the monitoring results of the Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network for 2011. Overall, the average annual concentration levels of most pollutants had decreased, reflecting continuous improvement in regional air quality.

In 2011, over 76 per cent of the Regional Air Quality Index recorded by the Network was within Grade II, meaning the pollutant concentrations were within Class 2 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (applicable to general residential areas).

Since the Network began operating in 2006, the average annual concentrations of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and respirable suspended particulates in the region have decreased by 49 per cent, 13 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

In spite of continuous economic growth in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, the average annual concentration levels of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide have decreased by 4 per cent and 7 per cent respectively in 2011 compared to the 2010 levels, while that of respirable suspended particulates has remained stable. These reductions are attributable to the implementation of enhanced emission reduction measures by both sides.

The installation of desulphurisation and denitrification systems at Hong Kong power plants was completed last year. Action has been taken to restrict the volatile organic compounds (VOC) in selected categories of pleasure craft and vehicle refinishing paints.

Prohibition against idling vehicles with running engines also came into effect in December 2011. Meanwhile, Guangdong has implemented various pollutant reduction measures, including installing low-nitrogen oxides (NOx) and denitrification systems at thermal power plants; phasing out highly polluting industrial boilers; setting up a registration and reporting system on the usage and emission control of organic solvents at major enterprises; regulating VOC emissions from enterprises; and gradually supplying National IV standard petrol within the PRD region.

According to the Network’s monitoring results, the average annual concentration level of ozone had increased by 21 per cent in 2011 compared to 2006.

Ozone is formed through photochemical reaction by nitrogen oxides with VOC under sunlight. To improve regional air quality and address the photochemical pollution problem, the two governments have been actively pursuing a series of emission reduction measures.

The Hong Kong SAR Government announced the adoption of new Air Quality Objectives this January.

The Administration is working progressively on necessary preparatory work on legislative amendments and taking forward 22 air quality improvement measures. The legislation has also been amended to tighten emission caps for power plants by requiring local power plants to increase the ratio of natural gas in local electricity generation to 50 per cent by 2015 and to install advanced emission abatement devices.

The Government is also conducting a trial of retrofitting selective catalytic reduction devices on Euro II and III franchised buses so as to reduce their nitrogen oxides emissions.

Subject to satisfactory trial results, the Government will fully subsidise retrofitting works for all Euro II and III franchised buses. In addition, the Government is stepping up control on tailpipe emissions from petrol and liquefied petroleum gas vehicles, and plans to subsidise replacement of catalytic converters and associated components for liquefied petroleum gas taxis and light buses, which will incur an expenditure of some HK$150 million. In addition, with effect from June 2012, standards of newly registered vehicles will be tightened to that of Euro V emission standards.

As for Guangdong, enhanced efforts will be taken forward to retrofit thermal power plants with low-NOx and denitrification systems. Large-scale industrial boilers and construction material, metallurgical and petrochemical industries will be required to adopt such technologies as flue gas desulphurisation, dust removal, low-NOx and denitrification. Vehicle emission control measures that follow national requirements will also be implemented as part of Guangdong’s pollution reduction plan for the 12-5 period.

In 2011, the concentrations of most pollutants were generally higher in the winter months (e.g.

from January to March and from October to December) whilst lower concentration levels were recorded in the summer months (e.g. from June to August). Similar patterns have been recorded in past years.

Geographically, air quality was better in the coastal areas than the central and north-west areas of the region, probably as a result of relatively more favourable conditions for pollutant dispersion in the former. This situation was in line with the observations in previous years.

The Network is one of the major achievements in co-operation between the two sides in environmental protection.

It comprises 16 automatic ambient monitoring stations scattered over the region, 13 of which are in the PRD Economic Zone, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, Shunde, Huiyang, Panyu and Conghua, and the other three in Tsuen Wan, Tung Chung and Tap Mun in 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 report covered the monitoring results of four major air pollutants (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and respirable suspended particulates) measured by the Network in 2011, and is available at both the GDEPD’s website (www.gdep.gov.cn/)and EPD’s website (www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/resources_pub/publications/m_report.html).

Source: HKSAR Government

Setback for runway planners in call for more information

Jun 12th, 2012
by Editor.
No comments yet

HK Standard

Phila Siu and Brian Chan

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Airport Authority has suffered a setback over its plan to build a third runway, as the government demands it should provide more project information before an environmental assessment can be carried out.

The authority said it received the request from the director of Environmental Protection on Friday, and the additional information should cover ecology, noise, health and hazards.

“The organization is firmly committed to fulfilling all the statutory requirements under the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Ordinance and will provide the requested information as soon as possible,” an authority spokesman said.

The project profile is needed to outline how the authority should conduct an environmental assessment.

The two-week public consultation ended yesterday, with 209 sets of public comments received, according to the Environmental Protection Department.

As soon as the authority provides the additional information to the EPD, the authority will have to gazette its profile again. Another two-week consultation will be carried out.

Meanwhile, 12 green groups renewed their calls for a more detailed profile yesterday. They stressed that the profile is very important as it will determine how the environmental assessment should be carried out.

Clean Air Network’s campaign manager Erica Chan Fong-ying said that the submitted profile does not mention three important pollution indicators that will be brought by the third runway construction – nitrogen oxide, fine suspended particulates and ozone.

“These have the biggest harm to human body,” Chan said. “But they are completely not mentioned in the profile.”

She pointed out these elements are essential because, for example, the pollution monitoring station in Tung Chung recorded the worst pollution of all the 14 stations in the city.

WWF’s terrestrial conservation manager Alan Leung Sze-lun said the authority makes use of outdated figures to assess the runway construction’s impact on Hong Kong’s rare pink dolphins.

Leung said although the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department issues the number of dolphins in Hong Kong every year, the authority makes use of 2007 and 2008 figures in its profile.

“The number of dolphins was still quite stable in 2007 and 2008, but the number has dropped a lot last year,” Leung said.