Air Pollution - Will it harm my child?

My wife and I are leaning towards staying in HK for another several years. Who'd have thunk it?


One of the inputs to our decision is probably going to be air quality. With a 2-year old growing up here, I want to be sure that 10 years of exposure to the air here is going to have no ill effects on her.


We live in Clearwater Bay, and I certainly have a better feeling about the air out here as compared with downtown (not many cars out here) - but I have nothing to base that on. I assume that during the time that China air is blowing in this direction, there's no escaping bad air anywhere in HK?


Do most buildings (schools) have air filters that would reduce the concentration of harmful particulates? What would typical air quality be in most office buildings?


Is it worth investing in air filters for inside a house, or do they end up cleaning out dust and don't address the real pollution (chemicals, vehicle particulates)?


My real question is - how bad is it really here, and is there potential health damage if we were to continue to stay here for a few years? There must be a high incidence of child asthma, that might be a good indicator? Also I don't take comfort in hearing many old chinese coughing up lungs. Info on http://www.epd-asg.gov.hk/ gives numbers, but what do they mean? How would HK compare for air quality (and consequential safety and health) compared with for example Sydney, or Vancouver (another top 2 of our choices).

The short answer is that pollution, especially NO2, is bad for health. The long answer is here:

http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/studyrpts/epd99cov.html

If you want the real story we have some of the top air pollution scientists appearing at our Town Hall Meeting - there are spots available if you want to come and ask your question:


http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/pollution/

We are kiwi/Aussie and our time here will definitely be reduced, purely due to the air quality - Simply can not subject our little ones to it for more than 3 years - 5 years absolute tops. Is so disappointing as HK is an awesome place to live - but its only going to get worse before it gets better!

There is bound to be pollution in HK. It is densely populated. If you come from countries where you have a few persons per square km/mile to a place where there are a few thousand persons per square km/mile, you are bound to be affected by not only pollution but by other factors associated with high density of population. The very same people who complain about this pollution are the ones who come here on expat packages and own two cars when none is required in a great place like HK(best public trans. in the world). This is not to defend the local government. They are trying their best and compared to several similarly populated cities, HK is pretty good. Some of you talk about Singapore. Have you considered the wretched weather of SP? If you have a light skintone, you are going to have hell with prickly heat. You sweat all year round and after a shower of rain, you can actually see the roads steaming. You are always in and out of cold/hot and this causes a lot of health problems. You get out of your cool home and out you are on the road with 32C and back again in a Taxi or Bus with 16-20C. This keeps happening.


As Blatant has rightly aid, the causes of asthama are many and different for different people.


To cut this long story short. People who are used to staying in cities or towns with scarce populations and few well controlled vehicles. Stay there. You cannot have the cake and eat it too.

This is my completely unscientific, subjective opinion:


Health isn't only determined by pollution level. That is obvious but I think a big deal is made out the pollution levels by people, especially expats from low-population, relatively green areas. Yes, it is true that there can be damages to one's system, but at the same token, human beings adapt to new environments amazingly well. If your kids grow up here, they might not even feel the effects. That said, if the pollution situation isn't ideal, you can perhaps take care of other aspects to improve your health - exercise, diet, maintaining a balanced lifestyle physically and psychologically.


Look at all the older generation of locals here - they've lived and worked in even worse circumstances before there were even environmental protectionist policies in a developing Hong Kong.


Your kids will grow up to have the immunity system of a Hong Konger. I read that as soon as developing countries reach their peak, the environmental cleanliness will restore itself as heavy industrialization slows down and the government starts to educate the public - Japan in the 70s had appalling levels of pollution but it's toned down since. That might happen to HK eventually.

Thanks for all of the comments - on average as bleak as I had feared.


My wife signed up to the townhall (I am away), thanks for the link. Great idea and great timing for that sort of thing.


A few questions I'm interested in asking experts in HK:


- Do the regions in HK that do not have heavy vehicle traffic (e.g. Clearwater Bay) have noticeably less pollution?

- How bad is the air originating from China (and what times of year) as compared with the HK-generated pollution?

- Are there any kind of air filters / systems that can effectively reduce pollution indoors.

- How does HK compare with cities such as Sydney, Vancouver


We also love Hong Kong and would love to stay - in fact I'd like to establish a branch office of my company here, but won't be doing so unless I can make sure my kid is safe.

The pollution has definately got worse since we've been here, but is noticably better in Clearwater Bay, usually the only fog you see out here is cloud. As to asthma, my son had asthma in the UK, and often gets wheezy when we are back there on holiday, but has only had 2 bad attcks in HK, and none for 7 years. The humidity here seems to help him 100 %.

I also have asthma, which was 95% worse in the U.S. -- used to need my inhaler several times a week, now in HK, almost never. The fact that I have 7 dehumidifiers running 24/7 may have something to do with it. (I think they also filter the air?) But even my allergies and colds have gone way down during the several years we've lived in HK.