[Petesy]

Originally Posted by matanica66

I understand the current severe pollution in HK is a relatively new phenomena. Like diseases such as lung cancer, it may take several decades of 'severe' exposure to pollution for the full impact to be realised, and to impact on life expectancy. To be honest I think the analysis is lacking some rigour.

Pollution was much worse when I was a kid (late 70s - early 80s). Back then you could actually smell the acid in the air in industrial areas like Kwun Tong or Lai Chi Kok.

We have always had pollution in here since the industrial boom in the 50s. It's just that after a relatively clean 90's the pollution is picking up again now.

[Expatriate]

You can see it like this:

People use car exhaust to kill themselves.

The nazis used car exhaust to kill the sick and the disabled.
(It took too long, so they switched to cyanide later)

[ontheroad]

Just for measure, don't judge a place by its cover, pollution wise : Sydney has one of the highest number of asthma sufferers in the world, and in fact, we've lived in many big cities (NY, London, Paris) and our asthma was at it worst, by far, in Sydney...we've been here less than a week so I can't judge on the air quality here... but from what I'm seeing, the south of the island seems pretty pollution free...