five Myths you should bust about the air pollution in Hong Kong

The post is addressing common misconceptions about the air pollution on Hong Kong. Some sources have been widely quoted in the document:

Misconception #1 : “The air quality in Hong Kong is much better than Shanghai or Beijing so my children are fine in HK with no air filter” : WRONG

Misconception #Two : “The pollution comes from cars and mostly China” : WRONG

Misconception #Three : “Locations such as Stanley or Sai Kung are not very polluted” : WRONG

Misconception #Four : “My child is fine, he is not coughing or showcasing any sign of illness so the air quality must be fine” : WRONG

Misconception #Five ” I don’t want to put my child in a air-filtered class, breathing bad air will make my child stronger”. WRONG

1. The air pollution level in HK is very serious, way above the WHO recommendations

PM Two.Five : PM2.Five are lil’ particles in the air that reduce visibility and cause the air to show up hazy when levels are elevated. The widths of the larger particles in the PM2.Five size range would be about thirty times smaller than that of a human hair.Particles in the PM2.Five size range are able to travel deeply into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs. The Environmental protection Department www.edp.gov.hk published that the average annual concentration of PM Two.Five levels in Central or Causewaybay were respectively about twenty nine and thirty eight μg/m3 in two thousand fourteen or much worse than Madurai in India or the same as Shenzen (the factory of the world).

In contrast, WHO recommends an upper limit of ten ug / m3 per year for the PM Two.Five

NO2 or nitrogene dioxide is a toxic gas

– The EDP measured that annual concentration of NO2 in Central and Causewaybay at one hundred three and one hundred four ug/m3

In contrast, WHO recommends an upper limit about 40ug / m3 per year for the No2

O3 or Ozone, is is a serious pollutant. It’s produced when sunlight combines and reacts with chemicals produced by cars, power plants, and factories.

From January to June 2014, average annual concentrations of the pollutant was forty three ug/m3, almost dual WHO’s annual recommended concentration level of 23.Five ug/m3 per cubic metre. The ozone pollution in Hong Kong is at worst level in a decade. The figure has been rising since its lowest recorded level in 2005, at 35mcg per cubic metre.

SO2 or Sulfur dioxide has a nasty, acute smell. It reacts lightly with other substances to form harmful compounds, such as sulfuric acid, sulfurous acid and sulfate particles. About 99% of the sulfur dioxide in air comes from human sources.

VOC or volatile organic compound is one of a number of chemicals, including benzene and acetone, that evaporate or vaporize readily.

Hong Kong polluted air in winter source wikipedia

Two. What are the sources of air pollution in Hong Kong ?

The diagram below shows the emission inventory for two thousand twelve under different emission source categories :

– Public electrical play generation

(FSP= PM Two.Five and PM10)

As per a examine from the EDP the RSP respirable particulate matter (PM Two.Five and PM10) as well as the SO2, NO2 and VOC are mostly produced by the four hundred eighty 000 boats coming to HK every year. This represents an average of one ships every sixty five seconds coming close to HK. People who have been doing some trekking on Po Toi Island can confirm this by simply observing this very high frequency of boats coming to the delta sea. Being surrounded by water on three sides, Hong Kong is greatly impacted by pollution that is generated from ships traveling to ports on either side of the city, not to mention ships that travel directly to Hong Kong’s port.

The island of Tap Pun is a good example: there is no factory and no cars but its average levels of air pollutants from March two thousand fourteen to February two thousand fifteen were alarming and at least twice the WHO standards:

The island just happens to be alongside the direct ships routes into Yantian port and winds in HK are N / N easterlies are passing through here for eleven months of the year.

Mainland Chinese factories

Mighty metal concentrations in the air in Hong Kong, can be found in air coming from mainland china. Several teams of scientists have studied smog in Hong Kong and at least two detected powerful concentrations of trace metals. Excessive amounts of zinc and chromium are toxic and can lead to a broad range of problems, from premature ageing to cancer and exspecially with children. The Hong Kong overall PM2.Five levels are lower than in most urban centres on the mainland, but it has a higher concentration of health-threatening trace metals, the scientists say. Almost twenty per cent of PM2.Five particle samples collected in the city carried metals such as zinc, a hazardous element that can permanently harm DNA. Which means that these mighty concentration will influence negatively our children’s children as well.

The air pollution problem is influenced by numerous factors in which weather conditions may accentuate or

alleviate the problem such as the wind direction and rain. Southern marine monsoon helps clean the air while

northern winds transport pollutants from Pearl Sea Delta region to Hong Kong.

What about Stanley’s or Sai Kung’s air pollution ?

The governement has not installed pollution sensors in locations such as Stanley or in some areas in Sai Kung.

The car traffic is lower than central Hong Kong so people say that the pollution levels are low and the air is good in these locations but whether citizens live in Stanley, Kennedy town or Shenzen they are impacted in almost same manner by the pollution of PM Two.Five, PM Ten, SO2, NOx, RSP coming from the boats and the public electro-therapy generation. The influence of road transport may be felt more in dense areas such as Central or Causeway Bay but is getting less and less significant due to latest measures implemented by the government to encourage cleaner euro five cars and buses on the road.

As conclusion, the air pollution is a problem across Hong Kong which impacts every part of the territory in more or less the same way including Stanley and other remote places.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE AIR POLLUTION ? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR MY CHILD(REN) ?

1. Increase health risks, allergies, asthma and mortality especially with children

Researchers found significant associations inbetween hospital admissions for asthma to fifteen major hospitals in Hong Kong and the levels of NO2, O3 , PM10 and PM Two.Five from January two thousand to December 2005. For every ten g/m3 increase in NO2, O3, PM10 and PM2.Five, there were Two.8%, Three.4%, 1.9% and Two.1% increases in the rates of asthma hospitalizations respectively.

– Nox and No2 are toxic gas which causes significant inflammation of the airways and form an significant fraction of PM2.Five and, in the presence of ultraviolet light, of ozone. NO2 causes detrimental effects to the bronchial system which leads to allergies, asthma etc.

– So2 is present in the boat fuel. This low cost fuel is rich in sulphur, with a percentage ranging form Two.7 to Four.Five %, to be compared with road vehicles using now Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) with a sulphur content of 0.001% in Europe, making ship fuel Four,500 times more polluting and harmful. Sulfur dioxide irritates the nose, mouth, and airways to cause coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, or a taut feeling around the chest. The effects of sulfur dioxide are felt very quickly and most people would feel the worst symptoms in ten or fifteen minutes after breathing it in.

– On the top of the know air pollutants, strenuous metal concentrations in the air in Hong Kong, can also be found in air coming from mainland china. These metal particulate matter penetrate the lungs deeply and influence our DNA.

Some genetic harm will be passed down to the next generations.

the poinson in the air we breathe. Courtesy SCMP

Two. Greater influence for youthful children especialy in indoor polluted spaces

Air pollution influence on children

A slight increase of the concentration of air pollution matter increases the risks of asthma, allergies and other illness with youthfull children whose respiratory system is under development.

When outdoor levels of PM2.Five are elevated, going indoors may be seen as reducing the exposure, but some outdoor particles will come indoors and levels inwards may not be lower than outside.

WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS FOR INDOOR ?

It is proven that air filters indoors and in the classroom have a positive influence on the children’s health

An exploratory probe was performed to evaluate a combination of the two systems in a primary school. Measurements of PM-10 and PM-2.Five were performed by filter sampling and aerosol spectrometry. Other indoor air quality parameters included black smoke (BS), volatile organic compounds (VOC), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and formaldehyde. Both interventions were introduced in one classroom during one week, using another classroom as a reference. In a 2nd week the interventions were moved to the other classroom, using the very first as a reference (cross-over design). In three remaining weeks the classrooms were compared without interventions. Indoor air quality parameters were compared to the corresponding outdoor parameters using the indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratio. When the classrooms were occupied (training hours) interventions resulted in 27–43% reductions of PM-10, PM-2.Five and BS values. During the weekends the systems diminished these levels by 51–87%. Evaluations using the switch in I/O ratios gave comparable results.

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