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Posted on Dec 17, 2007 - 1:19am by John P. in Environment, Health & Fitness, News
Sixteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China, according to World Bank research. Yet a report sponsored by the Chinese Government which uncovered potentially scary information was edited to “prevent social unrest”.
Missing from this report are the research project’s findings that high air-pollution levels in Chinese cities is leading to the premature deaths of 350,000-400,000 people each year. A further 300,000 people die prematurely each year from exposure to poor air indoors, according to advisers, but little discussion of this issue survived in the report because it was outside the ambit of the Chinese ministries which sponsored the research.
Another 60,000-odd premature deaths were attributable to poor-quality water, largely in the countryside, from severe diarrhea, and stomach, liver and bladder cancers.
The mortality information was “reluctantly†excised by the World Bank from the published report, according to advisers to the research project.
Sepa and the health ministry declined to comment. The World Bank said that the findings of the report were still being discussed with the government.
Of course, if anyone were to leak this information within China they’d be jailed like the guy who got 10 years just for blogging or like Chen Guang-cheng the blind dissident who sued for women’s rights.
Read the original article here.
Read the actual 128 page report here (PDF).
The real interesting part of things is how they plan to clean up the air for the Bejiing Olympics. Cloud seeding, turning off the ENTIRE city for an extended period of time, etc. They’re well past the ways to do it naturally and now are trying to find ways to do it artificially so they Olympic committee doesn’t pull out. Trainers are already worried how the acid-like air will abuse the athletes. If you think it’s bad walking, trying exerting yourself to the limit only to take in a lungful of toxic oxygen while your body starves for clean air :(
That is really tragic! I’ve heard similar rumblings concerning the Beijing Games. I’ve even heard that some athletes/countries are thinking of some sort of boycott because of the hazardous levels of toxins in the air!
Yeah it’s very bad.. I think it was Wired Mag that covered it but they had a few pictures of basically yellow air in one picture. Imagine exerting yourself physically to a point where you are beyond almost anyone else in the WORLD, and taking in a gulp of that air.
I’m curious to see how it’s gonna play off..
This is why it is a waste of money for the U.S. to try and do anything about global warming, that and the fact that it’s not happening.
Whenever there is a global summit on the environment, it always seems curious that those who have the most advanced pollution controls are the ones that get hammered while areas like China and other developing nations get a free pass. I’ve been to a number of Asian cities and the brown is far worse than Los Angeles on the smoggiest day in 1985. Thanks for highlighting the country that can afford to build factories and host the Olympics but can’t afford some rudimentary pollution control.
We are destroying our planet. And the leaders cannot do anything about it. We will only start to listen when it is too late. 750,000 Chinese is a ,but relative to its population its 0.00057% of the 1.3billion people.
we are doing a thing in scchool about pollution and its so sad to see how we act when people in places like china are dying from it