Playing in
pollution
Enduring Hong Kong’s suffocating, smog-filled skyline
is one of the daily battles we face living in the city. But
just how bad is the city’s air pollution? And what is its
impact on our children?
Rachel Jacqueline
investigates.
H
ong Kong’s air pollution
is bad. Very bad. The
city’s air pollution is a
poisonous cocktail of
nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide,
particulate matters and ozone, and
is three times worse than New York,
two times worse than London and also
ranks behind Singapore and Tokyo in
terms of air quality.
Only 50 days in 2013 were
registered as “clear” on a local
pollution scale, the Hedley
Environmental Index. More
shockingly, around nine preventable
deaths and more than 400
hospitalisations occur each day in
the city as a devastating result of air
pollution.
The “vertical city” is a victim
of its design: Hong Kong festers in
roadside emissions and regional smog
as pollution gets trapped amongst the
city’s many high-rises, particularly on
days with little wind.
And it’s not getting better.
While there has been some small
improvement in the reduction of
particulate matters that travel deep
into our airways, noxious gases in the
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