The Price Of Pollution - Susan Berfield
The Price Of Pollution - Susan Berfield 1 On most school days, nine-year-old Wong Ka Nang lines up with his classmates by a bus stop on a busy Hong Kong street. But on January 3 last year, Ka Nang didn't show up. The air was so unhealthy that the boy, who has asthma, had to miss the opening day of his school's winter term. For the first time since introducing a pollution index seven months earlier, officials advised those suffering from heart or respiratory problems to stay indoors. 2 The main cause of foul air in Hong Kong is the motor vehicles. Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department found that emission from diesel vehicles accounted for about 98 percent of the respirable suspended particulates in the air – one of Hong Kong's most damaging air pollutants. The worst offenders are taxis, mini-buses and trucks that run on diesel. What galled many in January 1996 was that just the month before the health alert, the transport lobby persuaded legislat...