[sustran] Reuters: CHINESE CITIES' BAD AIR IMPERILS CHILDREN

[Tamim Raad]

Reuters: CHINESE CITIES' BAD AIR IMPERILS CHILDREN

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

ANAHEIM, California - Millions of children risk disease and death because
they live in badly polluted cities, a report issued on Sunday finds.

The report, by the Washington-based World Resources Institute, lists the 10
cities in the world with the worst air pollution and finds nine out of 10
of them in China. The fifth-worst city is in India.

The worst is Lanzhou, in Gansu Province in northwestern China. The region
has a large petrochemical industry and oil refineries. "As a consequence of
the emissions from these industries, the city rarely experiences a clear
day," the report, released at the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, says.

The study, funded by the World Health Organisation, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and other groups, looked at three measurements of air
pollution - total suspended particulates (TSPs), sulphur dioxide and
nitrogen dioxide.

These are taken to be good indicators of pollution caused by the burning of
fossil fuels.

WHO guidelines say the maximum permissible amount of TSPs is 90 micrograms
per cubic litre of air. According to the report, Lanzhou has more than 700.
The next worst city, Jilin, has close to that, while Taiyuan has nearly 600.

The effects on health are devastating, Devra Lee Davis, an epidemiologist
who led the study, told a news conference.

"Most children who live in large cities in the developing world breathe air
that is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day," Davis said.

The problem is that these cities have rapidly growing economies but
old-fashioned technology.

"While development is welcome, the fact that it occurs in areas with
technology ... that is 30 or 40 years old ... places all the populations of
these cities at risk," she said.

"Cars in Beijing meet 1970 U.S. standards."

But she said the Chinese government had recognised the problem and was
moving to upgrade buses, cars and trucks to cleaner standards. "Improving
energy efficiency will have a major effect," she said.

The report says developing countries should be helped to clean up their
cars, factories and other polluters before it is too late. Developed
countries, although many are still polluted, have benefited from cleaner
technology.

"If these pollution-reduction technologies are made more readily available
to developing countries, these could help them avoid the high risks to
public health that result from current patterns of growth in their
industrial and urban sectors," the report says.

"Since most of the transportation and power generating plants of developing
countries will be acquired during the next few decades, the health of
children and of all urban residents can be markedly protected if these
newly acquired systems employ more efficient and less polluting technologies."

Children are more at risk because they breathe faster and because their
lungs are still developing and thus more susceptible, the report says,
citing several studies.

Pollution has been shown to damage the cilia in the airways - the tiny
hairs that sweep out pollutants and invaders. Without the cilia, harmful
chemicals can get deep into lung tissue and cause permanent damage, Davis
said.

To make matters worse, leaded gasoline is still used in many countries, and
several studies have shown that lead from fuel emissions ends up in
children's' bodies. Lead can cause brain damage, retard growth and, in
extreme cases, kill.

The 10 cities listed in the report, in descending order of TSP levels, are
Lanzhou, Jilin, Taiyuan, Jiaozuo, Rajkot in India, Wanxian, Urumqi,
Yichang, Hanzhong and Anyang.

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