Pollution a problem for infants/babies?

[Sleuth]

You know what I don't get? Hong Kong does have these health care issues - but regardless, it has one of the longest life expectancies in the world. I believe the life expectancy rate here is higher than that of the USA, Canada or Great Britain!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

So it can't be TOOOOO bad - people still live on average 3-4 years longer than people in the USA...

The bad pollution here, according to those who have been here for a long time, is relatively recent. It would be shockingly bad if a build up of pollution over the course of say 10 years was adversely impacting life expectancy already.
It isn't so bad that it is going to kill you tomorrow or even next year, it's going to be 30 or 40 years from now. Life expectancies would need to be compared around 2050.

 

[soon2bmom]

This is an issue that's close and dear to my heart. I'm seriously considering moving back to Aus or Can(where husband comes from) to have my kids grow up in a healthier environment. I have lived in four cities: Sydney, LA, Shanghai and HK, and I can tell you for sure that Shanghai is definitely the worst but HK is not too far behind. To us, no job offer or business opportunity is worth the risk.

As for the life span, I would guess that the effect of air pollution is a long term one and you will need to measure the direct cause-and-effect over several decades, i.e. it has a time lag. People who live long lives now enjoyed better air when they were growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, at that time, I believe China didn't have factories in the Pearl Delta region. Then of course as it's been mentioned, the obesity and diet problem.

 

[MLBW]

I hate the air pollution in Hong Kong and it is really bad. I don't really even care what the scales say, the fact that I feel like my skin is crawling with dust and debris every time I go outside anywhere in Hong Kong and that the air gives me headaches and makes my throat sore says to me that things are really bad in HK. For this reason (and many others) my husband and I plan to move out of HK as soon as possible--especially for our health and the health of our 11-month-old son. I read this article about a year ago:

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/Environment/article/276665

Hong Kong has the number 3, worst-polluting, coal burning electrical plant in the world located at Castle Peak.

Top 10 polluting power plants

The world's most polluting power plants, with annual emissions in millions of tons of CO{-2}. Ontario Power Generation's Nanticoke generating station on Lake Erie is 65th, with 17.6 million tons.

1. Taichung, Taiwan (41.3)

2. Poryong, South Korea (37)

3. Castle Peak, Hong Kong (35)

4. Reftinskaya SDPP, Russia (33)

5. Mailiao FP, Taiwan (32.4)

6. Tuoketuo-1, China (32.4)

7. Vindhyachail, India (29)

8. Hekinan, Japan (28.9)

9. Kendal, South Africa (28.6)

10. Janschwalde, Germany (27.4)

 

[hannah.e.law]

I'm going to have to be a voice for the other side here, as I feel that, while there is pollution here, it completely depends on the person as to how affected you are. I'll admit that the first month or two after coming to HK, from Seattle USA (a relatively clean-air large city), I occasionally felt the pollution, especially if I was doing some lung-busting exercise.

But I have been here for well over a year now and very rarely notice it anymore. Some days in the summertime I'd notice it as a haze in the air one days when it was sweltering hot and not a breeze to be seen. However, even when doing lung-busting exercises, I can't tell. That being said, I don't exercise in Central. However I live on HK Island, and not on the South side either.

There may be some people who are really affected, but I'm not one of them, and I'm sure there are many more like me, although it seems not on this forum. I don't mean to imply that there isn't pollution, and that you won't notice it, but unless your spending hours everyday standing in Central at a busy corner, I don't feel it's necessarily going to negatively impact your life.

 

[Neha]

Quite agree with hannah.e.law.Pollution is bad but not that bad that it is unlivable

 

[MLBW]

Some people can handle breathing smog but the stats show that people are getting sick in Hong Kong from the pollution. No matter what, pollution isn't good for us. Hong Kong Island isn't the most polluted place in HK, actually--on HK Island I find that there is usually at least a breeze from the sea going on--try living in the New Territories or anywhere away from the sea. I just think it's shameful that such a progressive city as HK that there should still be such a dirty coal-burning plant just flying below the radar. It's pretty sad.

 

[MommyTo3]

No personal problems for me (or my family either). Some days I notice it looks pretty bad, on others it seems fine. I play sports in Happy Valley and it doesn't me either. But we don't have any respitory issues in our family, we live on the South Side and we don't plan to be here for the rest of our lives, I am not extremely worried, although I do believe efforts should be made to improve the overall situation, not just in Hong Kong.

If my children had severe issues, we wouldn't have moved here in the first place, because then it would not have been worth it. If their situation changes, we'll look into it, but so far, I think it's not going to be a problem. We've been very lucky so far, in general they're pretty healthy children.

 

[aussiegal]

Hannah, ingesting any poison into your body will affect your health. You might not feel or notice it today but it will happen down the track. I'm quite surprised that you don't notice it, it's everywhere you look and certainly particularly on the island I feel it in my lungs, on my skin nearly every single day. Perhaps it's more a case of you simply getting used to it.

I think it would be remiss to try and deny how bad the pollution is here. If we deny it then there is no motivation to change it. Imagine how lovely HK would be with a lower level of pollution.

 

[MLBW]

Hannah, ingesting any poison into your body will affect your health. You might not feel or notice it today but it will happen down the track. I'm quite surprised that you don't notice it, it's everywhere you look and certainly particularly on the island I feel it in my lungs, on my skin nearly every single day. Perhaps it's more a case of you simply getting used to it.

I think it would be remiss to try and deny how bad the pollution is here. If we deny it then there is no motivation to change it. Imagine how lovely HK would be with a lower level of pollution.

Aussiegal, I agree. Poison is poison and ingesting it affects our health. I am especially wary because of my son. For example, when I was pregnant, I would walk down the street in HK and constantly have cigarette smoke blown in my face. I choose not to smoke for a reason--namely because cigarettes contain known carcinogens and smoking them leads to cancer. However, now that HK has made the move to ban smoking in eateries (and eventually some bars), people are smoking more outside. I literally could not get away from it. So, I felt quite angry because I was like, "I am choosing not to smoke for the health of my child but still people are blowing second-hand smoke into my lungs and I can't escape it!" I feel the same way about the corporate air pollution in HK. I don't ever want to "adjust" to breathing dirty air.

 

[neil_g63]

Lets be rational here

Yes, pollution is a concern, but last time I checked it killed less people than tobacco, alcohol, cholesterol and driving whilst on a mobile phone (ok, maybe i lied about the last one). But c'mon now, if you wrap yourself and your kids in cotton wool, how are you ever going to live. Enjoy life whilst you can.