Air pollution in Hong Kong
[1][obsolete source] The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) published the Hong Kong Air Pollutant Emission Inventory on their website every year since 2000.
[4] Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react with nitrogen oxides (NOx) to form ozone under sunlight, "which in turn helps the formation of fine particulates.
[7] Since millions of people in Hong Kong live and work in close proximity to busy roads, this presents a major health risk to city residents.
[7] Studies by local public health experts have found that these roadside pollution levels are responsible for 90,000 hospital admissions and 2,800 premature deaths every year.
[8][9] Former Chief Executive Donald Tsang declared that the high life-expectancy of Hong Kong demonstrates that concerns over air quality were not justified.
[10]Professor Anthony Hedley, chair of community medicine at Hong Kong University, said: "Tsang is badly advised on current public health issues."
Hedley added that air pollution levels in Hong Kong were extremely high, and could affect the lungs, blood vessels and heart.
[10] James Tien, former Chairman of the Liberal Party of Hong Kong, retorted, "Can [Tsang] really be confident that, if pollution continues to worsen, will he be able to promise the same life expectancy for our children and for our grandchildren?
[11] Merrill Lynch downgraded several Hong Kong property companies because of air quality concerns, and there have been warnings from the head of the Stock Exchange that pollution was scaring investors away.
[11] It said that the air quality in Hong Kong is now regularly so poor that its "long-term competitiveness is in some doubt", and advised clients to switch into developers in Singapore instead.
[13] Pollution is dramatically harming not only the health of citizens of Hong Kong but also its economy, particularly relating to the ability to attract skilled foreign labour.
"[citation needed] "Five years ago, air quality wasn't a concern when people considered whether to relocate to Hong Kong", said Jardine Engineering Corp. Chief Executive James Graham.
A London-based human resources consultant recommends that companies pay a 10 per cent hardship allowance to lure expatriates, partly because of air quality.
Common pollutants include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (from solvent-based paints, solvents and adhesives) and dust from cutting, sanding, polishing and grinding materials.
[23][24][25] Analysis of the contents of ash samples from Vietnam[26] and Singapore[27] shows that joss paper burning can emit many pollutants detrimental to air quality.
There is a significant amount of heavy metals in the dust fume and bottom ash, e.g., aluminium, iron, manganese, copper, lead, zinc and cadmium.
[28] "Burning of joss paper accounted for up to 42% of the atmospheric rBC [refractory black carbon] mass, higher than traffic (14-17%), crop residue (10-17%), coal (18-20%) during the Hanyi festival in northwest China", according to a 2022 study, "the overall air quality can be worsened due to the practice ... which is not just confined to the people who do the burning," and it is "common in China and most Asian countries with similar traditions.
Recent regulations on emission compliance for non-road mobile machinery are mainly targeted at equipment newly imported to Hong Kong.
"[45] As per the Clean Air Network, 53% of Hong Kong's pollution comes from local sources – power stations, idling engines of cars, trucks and buses and marine emissions as of 2012[update].
[46][obsolete source] Hong Kong has only 5% of the land of the Pearl River Delta, but it creates 20% of its pollution, far more than its neighbouring cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
[47][48][obsolete source][needs update] A large portion of this pollution comes from coal-fired power stations in Hong Kong and vehicular traffic.
[59] The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) in Hong Kong was established to solve problems and provide for a long lasting acceptable level of air quality.
[7] Professor Wong Tze-wai, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong commented that the current air pollution index "gives a false sense of security".
[7] Gary Wong, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Department of Paediatrics and School of Public Health, said that under the current index, "some harmful pollution components aren't even recorded".
Academics called for Hong Kong Government to immediately update its air quality objectives set almost twenty years ago.
On 8 March 2012, the department started reporting data on fine suspended particulates in the air on an hourly basis, that are a leading component of smog.
In the 2008–09 Budget, Financial Secretary John Tsang proposed a 100 per cent profit tax deduction for capital expenditure on environmentally friendly machinery and equipment in the first year of purchase, to encourage the business community to go green.
[citation needed] In January 2014, Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah announced that the HK government would update its air quality objectives, put in place in 1990, bringing them closer to WHO guidelines.
"[82] Other environmental activists shared little hope in government efforts to reduce pollution and lamented the half-hearted implementation of measures, and the elusiveness of timetable for meeting the most stringent objectives.
