TWO years of lead-free petrol pouring from pumps has done nothing to improve air quality in Hongkong, which Government officials say exceeds safety limits by at least 30 per cent.
Car owners keen to go green began using unleaded petrol when it was introduced in April 1991, and sales of the fuel peaked in February this year. But environmental protection officer Mr Raymond Leung Pak-ming said their environmentally friendly gesture was an empty one.
Diesel vehicles still make up more than 70 per cent of traffic and emit about 80 per cent of pollutants. So the benefit from the small number of cars using lead-free petrol has been swallowed up in a haze of black smoke.
A controversial Government proposal to switch vehicles from diesel to unleaded petrol, which was shelved two years ago, is being resurrected in an attempt to clear the smog.
But even Environment Protection Department (EPD) officials admit this will do nothing more than maintain air quality at the present dangerous levels, because any reduction in diesel pollution will be wiped out by the predicted doubling of road traffic bythe year 2000.
Both the EPD and Friends of the Earth (FoE) have called for stricter controls on traffic, and say it is the only answer to Hongkong's air pollution problems.
The Environmental Pollution Control Committee is to study a paper tomorrow on how to control traffic pollution, while the proposed diesel to petrol switch will be discussed in the next month.
