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Air pollution records 10 times worse than WHO Guideline

The Civic Party concerns about the worsening air quality of Hong Kong in this week and urges the Hong Kong Government not to delay the solving of air pollution problem in order to avoid more damage on the public health.

According to Environmental Protection Department’s Air Pollution Index figures, today Central roadside station recorded 140 and Sham Shui Po general station recorded 110, both had reached “very high” level of the Air Pollution Index, which indicated that the air quality was seriously polluted.

According to HKU’s Hedley Index, lots of air pollutants were accumulated in the air. RSPs record was 10 times worse than WHO Guideline, SO2 and NO2 were 5 times worse than WHO Guideline. The figures showed that, from 19th Jan to the noon of 23rd Jan, this had resulted in 24 premature deaths, over 1630 avoidable hospital bed days, 139,686 extra doctor visits and a loss of HK$45.56 million in last 5 days.

Ms. Audrey Eu, Civic Party Leader, said that air pollution has been worsened to the level of effecting pubic health and she is disappointed that the Government delay to update the Legislative Council on the measures of air quality improvement. The Subcommittee on Improving Air Quality invited the Government to present the latest development on air quality improvement policies and measures but the Government only agreed to attend the subcommittee meeting not before March.

She also urges the Government to update Hong Kong Air Quality Index according to WHO Air Quality Guideline and let the public to acknowledge the level of the air pollution precisely