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Letter to the Editor of the Fuji Sankei Business i dated 12 November 2004 - Hong Kong's Air Quality
I refer to your report and reference, on 10 November, to a claim in a report released by a non government organization which said that in Hong Kong air pollutants exceeded the limits set by EU by a large margin.
The claim is a wrong comparison, as EU's air quality standards allow for frequent excesses, making it impossible to make direct comparison with Hong Kong's Air Quality Objectives. For example, the EU allows the daily standard for particulate matters of sizes below 10 microns to be exceeded for 35 days in a year, whereas Hong Kong considers it failing the Objectives if it is exceeded for more than once. Hong Kong's Air Quality Objectives are in general similar to those of the United States.
We do recognize we have a regional air quality problem and our particulates matter and ozone levels over the territory have worsen recently. However, we have also seen gradual improvement in air quality locally in Hong Kong, after we switched our taxis from diesel to LPG, and introduced ultra low sulphur diesel for our other diesel vehicles, amongst many other control measures we have taken. Our roadside particulate matters level has improved by 13% and nitrogen oxides by 23% compared to levels in 1999.
We should be most grateful if you would publish the above so that your readers could have a better understanding of Hong Kong's air quality, and would not be misled by the wrong comparison.
Mr Robert J S LAW
Director of Environmental Protection
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