Civic Exchange launches 3 events to support public consultation over improving Hong Kong's ari pollution in the next 30 days. 

Hong Kong . . . December 11, 2008. Air pollution, the biggest unmanaged threat to public health in Hong Kong is responsible for more than 1,500 premature deaths per year. Amid growing public concern Government is currently reviewing its air quality standards, which it uses to assess air pollution, and is inviting public comment over the next few weeks.

In order to assist this process, Civic Exchange is hosting three events to increase public awareness and encourage debate on air quality and the link with public health:
 
Thursday 18th December:  Launch of the Hedley Environmental Index 

Commissioned by Civic Exchange, developed by the Department of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, HKU, and presented by Friends of the Earth, this online index will provide the first ever real-time accounting of the external costs of air pollution in terms of premature deaths, hospital bed days, and monetary loss.  Click here to see the Hedley Environmental Index and learn the true costs of our air pollution, in terms if deaths, illnesses, hospital visits and in $.
 
5th, 6th or 7th  (tbc) January:  Public Opinion Survey on Health and Air Quality 
How do Hong Kong people perceive air pollution and how it impacts them? A 1,200-person telephone survey conducted by the Hong Kong Transition Project of Baptist University has explored attitudes towards local pollution problems. The findings demonstrate that the community is deeply concerned.
 
Saturday 10th January: Conference The Air We Breathe: A Public Health Dialogue
What policies should we adopt to protect public health for this and future generations? This large-scale conference aims organized by Civic Exchange to raise awareness of air quality and health issues, and to focus discussion on solutions. The day before 50 local and international experts will meet to discuss the more technical aspects of the issue in a closed session. These experts will also attend the public conference on 10th January. 
 
Members of the press are invited to attend all these events and may request feature interviews with local and international air quality experts, public health experts, legal experts, physicians, and policy experts. 
 
For more information please refer to the conference website:
www.civic-exchange.org/eng/event_airconference2009.aspx http://www.civic-exchange.org/eng/event_airconference2009.aspx for regular updates, see below
for more background, or contact:
 
Ms. Michelle Wong, Events & Communications Manager at 3622 2301 (office),       
9361 5947 (mobile) or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or
Mr. Mike Kilburn, Environmental Programme Manager at 2893 0213 (office),           
6221 2984 (mobile) or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
 
Visit us at:  www.civic-exchange.org

Air Pollution in Hong Kong: Background  
 
The Big Picture
We all know that we have bad air quality – smoggy days are an almost permanent blight on our skies and Hong Kong’s air is twice or three times more polluted than the air in London, New York or Los Angeles. The official information - The Air Pollution Index - is unhelpful because it understates advice on the threats of our daily air pollution.
 
Sources: While about 80% of the air pollution affecting Hong Kong arises from sources in the PRD, research shows about 50% of the time the pollution affecting us comes directly from local sources - principally power stations, vehicular emissions and marine emissions. While power plants emit the largest quantity of emissions, those from vehicles and ships have large public health impacts. For example, Hong Kong’s roadside pollution presents a daily health threat and the solutions are within Hong Kong’s own control. 
 
Legislation & Administration: Hong Kong’s air pollution control standards have not been updated for over 20 years. They are therefore based on outdated health knowledge. Indeed, the Air Pollution Control Ordinance (APCO) is not designed to protect public health. The ordinance’s purpose:  “to make best use of the air” is in fact hard to define.  The lack of direction
to protect public health makes APCO different from equivalent laws in other countries. Furthermore, APCO is managed by the Environmental Protection Department (EPD), while public health is the responsibility of the Health Department, which plays no role in setting pollution control standards. 
 
The Current Review
Following years of pressure from experts and civil society, this year the government began the first review of air quality objectives (AQOs) since they were created. The review will continue into 2009.  Chief Executive Donald Tsang recently announced:
 
“The Government is now reviewing the air quality objectives. To improve air quality in the long run, we will adopt targets in stages giving due regard to the World Health Organisation’s guidelines”. 
Policy Address 15 October 2008
 
Closer study showed the government is considering to adopt the WHO’s entry-level Interim Target1 (IT1), which offers no meaningful improvement on current standards. 
 
The government is concerned tighter standards would lead to Hong Kong failing them by an even larger margin. This mindset sees the AQOs as administrative hurdles rather than health-based standards that we must strive to meet from year to year in order to protect the health of the public. The government’s view on the AQOs needs to be brought into line with international thinking. 
 
Civic Exchange’s position
Hong Kong should adopt the full WHO air quality guidelines now and devise an emissions reduction plan to reduce the number of days of allowed exceedance of the standard as pollution control measures take effect. In addition, the APCO should be amended to make protection of public health its central purpose and a 5-year review of AQOs (taking account of new research) must be made mandatory.

www.civic-exchange.org