Hong Kong pollution worse than Los Angeles

A study carried out in Hong Kong finds that the air pollution there is worse than places like Los Angeles, London, New York and Paris. What is worrying is that the air pollution has contributed to the deaths of more than 1,600 people in Hong Kong. From The Standard:

Researchers said air quality improvements could bring benefits of more than HK$20 billion a year.

In addition, 64,000 hospital "bed days" and 6.8 million family doctor visits could be avoided, findings show.

"If it was an infectious disease, there would be a crisis," professor Anthony Hedley from Hong Kong University's School of Public Health said. "This is a medical emergency."

Unlike infectious diseases, the harm caused by pollution is "unobservable" but this is affecting the health and lung growth of young people, Hedley added.

The study says Hong Kong has poor visibility 45 percent of the time.

Oh man, if Hong Kong is that bad, I'm sure Beijing will be far worse.

(Thanks Yanling)