Lai See | Grim report on air pollution and how it affects children's lungs

A new report shows alarming effects of air pollution on children's lungs. We noted some preliminary findings of the report some weeks ago, but the report produced by Dr Hung Wing-tat's team at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has now been published. Called Health Effects of Air Pollution Exposure on School Children in Hong Kong, it is based on a study of 12 schools and analyses the quality of the air that the children breathe in the classroom, in their homes and in the transport they use travelling to school. It also measures the lung function of these children, who were from Form Five and Form Six. One class from each school was surveyed.

The report says children in 10 of the 12 schools surveyed had weaker lung function than they would normally have been expected to have. Children in only two of the schools had better lung function than expected. Children in 11 of the 12 schools had asthma, which also affected as many as 25 per cent of the children in one of the classes.

It also found 13 to 59 per cent of the children in the different classes suffered from an allergic nasal condition, which was attributed to tobacco smoking at home, incense burning and mould in their homes. The lung function of children with smokers at home was about 5 per cent weaker than those who did not live with smokers.

The poor air quality in transport was particularly alarming. School buses contained concentrations of pm10 and pm2.5, carbon dioxide and total volatile organic compounds that were all well above World Health Organisation standards. Children are also exposed to pm10 that exceed WHO guidelines when they walk in the streets, take the train and travel on franchised buses.

The report makes grim reading for those concerned with the health of children in Hong Kong. When lungs are affected by pollution at a young age, they are rarely able to return to a "normal" condition.