Leung Suet-mui loves Hong Kong. It's where she was born, where her family and friends are, where her husband's career has flourished.
But Leung is also a mother. Yesterday her nine-year-old son Bruce collapsed from an asthma attack at Kennedy School, Pokfulam, and was taken to hopital by ambulance.
Since 1998 when Hong Kong's air pollution levels began climbing, her three children have developed increasingly severe asthma. Her eldest child is at boarding school in Sydney and does not have asthma because, says Leung, 'He does not have the air problem there.' As the pollution has deteriorated, Leung's children have needed more and more drugs. Now she is convinced she will have to give up Hong Kong and go to Australia, to save her children's lives.
'My husband and I have talked about the same subject over and over again, whether we should leave Hong Kong. I have talked to the doctor about this subject also. The solution is not taking more ventolin or to keep the kids inside the house, the only choice is to leave.
'We are very reluctant to do this. It means my husband will be working in Hong Kong and the rest of the family will be living overseas. He will be an 'astronaut' and we will only see him during his holidays or the school holidays. However, for the sake of the children, I have to get them out of here.' It sounds like a drastic solution, but Leung is not overreacting. When asked how parents can best protect their children from the effects of air pollution, Dr Lam Ching-choi, consultant paediatrician and director of the Haven of Hope Medical service at Tseung Kwan O, said: 'You want the real answer? There is nothing much we can do - only emigrate.' Dr Lam said an alternative is to consider moving to less polluted parts of the SAR, such as Sai Kung or the southern, less crowded side of Hong Kong island, like Tai Tam. But apart from that, measures such as keeping children indoors and closing all the windows may make asthma worse, not better.
Pointing out that if air quality is poor outside, it will be just as poor, or even worse, indoors, Dr Lam said: 'If you close the windows, the levels of house dust mites rise and make asthma worse in children who have allergies to house dust mites.' House dust mite allergy is the commonest cause of asthma in children in Hong Kong.
