Container ship health risk 'ignored'

Hongkongers living near container ports are being subjected to levels of sulphur dioxide much higher than should be allowed, says the author of a government report on marine pollution.

Scientists, environmentalists and even the shipping industry have accused the government of dragging its feet in regulating pollution from container ships and other ocean vessels, putting at risk the health of thousands of people living in areas like Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi.

'It's a very big health threat,' said Hong Kong University of Science and Technology visiting scholar Simon Ng Ka-wing, who is working on a report on marine emissions for the Environmental Protection Department (EPD). 'At the moment, many people living in Kwai Chung don't even know that shipping emissions are harming their health.'

According to an index developed by University of Hong Kong public health professor Anthony Hedley, air pollution in the city kills between 1,000 and 2,000 people a year. About a third of those deaths can be directly attributed to shipping emissions, based on studies held after the government legislated low-sulphur fuel for road vehicles in the 1990s.

'If you have grown up in highly polluted air, you will likely have lower levels of lung function, which will expose you to a higher risk of heart and lung disease and premature death,' Hedley said. 'We are stacking up a great deal of problems for many children growing up in Hong Kong's environment because the pollution levels are so very high.'

A study last year by Chak Chan, head of the University of Science and Technology's Institute for the Environment, suggested that levels of roadside sulphur dioxide in Hong Kong were significantly higher than those reported by the government.