Ha Kong of the Environmental Protection Department ('Clear the air', January 7) missed the point of my letter on smoky vehicles (January 3).
The Transport Department calls in for inspection vehicles reported by the public for having dangerous attachments. But, except in a very few cases, the EPD does not take such action upon reports from the public. I know the EPD has a training course to enable the public to identify excessive smoke emissions, but does it think people will attend a course when it is a matter of common sense to identify such emissions?
Why cannot the EPD follow the lead of the Transport Department and bring reported vehicles in for inspection? In the first half of last year I reported 32 vehicles to the EPD and most of these are still travelling the same roads. It is clear that no action was taken to remove them or even to check the locations in my reports. Yes, a lot of smoky vehicles have been removed from our roads over the past few years, probably as much due to natural scrapping of vehicles, the economic downturn and relocation of industries over the border as to anything else.
As a result I stopped wasting my time reporting such vehicles from the middle of last year and simply suffer in silence like the majority of the Hong Kong populace.
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