News article on bbc site includes:
Quote:
There are two main sources of air pollution in Hong Kong. In terms of sheer tonnage, most of the air pollution comes from factories in the Pearl River Delta across the border, and it is the particulates they emit that cause the haze. But this comes in concentrated spurts. The rest of the time it is local sources – vehicle emissions, power plants and marine traffic – that are at the root of the problem. Christine Loh, head of the think tank Civic Exchange, says this means that blame cannot just be shifted over the border, and that the government has been slow to act. "So far, the government is in denial. It’s not that the government is not doing anything. It’s a question of whether it is doing enough, fast enough," she said. Even the pollutants that drift over the border are in one sense "made in Hong Kong" – many of the 70,000 factories in the Pear River Delta are owned by Hong Kong businesses. Serious cost "Pollution is responsible for serious chronic disease and premature death on a daily basis," said Anthony Hedley, professor of community health at the University of Hong Kong.