[kombuchakid]

api.greenpeace.org.hk.

check out Central respirable suspended particulates
EPD- 71 Greenpeace 122.1

from a letter in today's SCMP

Clear the Air and Greenpeace decided not to wait and started publishing the truth every day beginning last November. We take raw data from the Environmental Protection Department and calculate the API based on European Union standards.


In fact, the EPD has been boldly publishing the raw data for years. However, it has been deliberately prevented from reporting the proper API. (During the early days of Sars, a couple of concerned people posted on a website the buildings where Sars cases were found, from government notices. Quite soon, everyone started using that website - and this shamed the government into publishing the data itself).

In the same way, you can now find the "real API" online. Parents should make sure that their schools are aware of actual danger levels, so that educators can decide what precautions to take and how much strenuous exercise children should take. Of special concern is the fact that the government claims the Hong Kong API is based on US standards. If that is so, then why is there such a difference between the advice given to US parents and Hong Kong parents? The current US recommendations on children's health, found on the Clear the Air website, are very different from the Hong Kong advice.

The EPD is ready, willing and able to revise the standards tomorrow - but is being prevented by instruction from the very top. It is time Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen insisted that we adopt standards that actually protect our children's health. Until he does, find the truth at the Clear the Air and Greenpeace websites.

ANNELISE CONNELL, Clear the Air

[PDLM]

There's no such thing as a "proper" API - every country and organisation has its own standards. There's even a link on the Greenpeace site where you can compare the standards. From this you can see that HK's are more stringent (in most cases) than the US's, but less stringent than all others. But is it reasonable to have the same air quality targets in HK as in, say, New Zealand, which has half the number of people spread out over 250 times the land area? I think not.

Any "API" is an arbitrary number. If the air quality here is actually affecting people's health significantly then why doesn't Greenpeace publish the statistics that demonstrate this instead of some completely arbitrary "API" figures?

[kombuchakid]

Residents of the smog-choked Iranian capital were told not to go to work or school for two days in an unprecedented government effort to stop Tehran from suffocating. With offices in the urban sprawl of 10 million people effectively shut down through the weekend until Saturday, police were also out in force Wednesday to prevent motorists from entering a large part of the city without a permit.

more....http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/1....aly585ah.html

[kirlex]

That has happened in a number of cities. I recall Mexico City and Istanbul had to do that a few years back. And the population of Tehran proper is well over 10 million.