Buses blamed for ‘bad or awful’ air quality

Buses blamed for ‘bad or awful’ air quality – Adrian Wan (SCMP – 28/9/2009)

More than 40 per cent of newsvendors on Nathan Road suffer from bronchitis or nasal allergies, and most blame exhaust fumes from the buses that ply the busy thoroughfare.

This has emerged from a survey by Friends of Earth, which says their condition mirrors that of not only the city’s 600 licensed newspaper sellers but also the 3.5 million people who live within five minutes walking distance of a major road.

Newsvendors were surveyed because they spent a great deal of time on the street and were an indicator of street-level air quality, the green group said.

Tang Yap-ming, vice-chairman of the Newspaper Hawker Association, said “Coughs and asthma are occupational diseases newsvendors come down with, but they don’t have other options but to continue working at the same places.”

All 22 vendors on Nathan Road were approached in August and 19 agreed to be interviewed. Almost all said the air quality was “bad or awful” and a similar number pointed the finger of blame at exhaust fumes from buses, especially those with air conditioning.

A vendor who has been running his news-stand for 15 years in Yau Ma Tei suffers from bronchitis, nasal allergy and a chesty cough. He says ge occasionally feels breathless.

Friends of the Earth environmental affairs officer Angus Wong Chun-yin said the “foul air quality” did not concern just newsvendors “but also almost half of the entire population who live by a road”.

He said vehicles that ran on heavy diesel were very harmful to the air on the street, and that buses that ran on this fuel made up 35 per cent of all traffic on Nathan Road. Wong said suspended particles and nitrogen dioxide levels in the past 10 years had exceed levels set down by the government’s air quality objectives.

“Buses are at the centre of the air pollution.” He said.


2. Summary

Coughs and asthma are occupational diseases newsvendors come down with, they spent a great deal of time on the street with “foul air quality” but they don’t have other options to change another place working. According to the survey by Friends of the Earth, almost all newspaper sellers said the air quality was “bad or awful” and some of them occasionally feel breathless. The official of Friends of the Earth environmental affairs clamed, the vehicles running on heavy diesel are very harmful to the air on the road, especially the buses with air conditioning.

3. Feedback

Hong Kong Government always urged the residents boarding public transport to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the most serious emission of transport is the buses with air conditioning actually. Although reducing the use of non-public transport can cut the emissions, it is not helpful for the environment when people board the vehicles running on heavy diesel. In fact, regulating the emissions of public transport is more important than urging people to follow the ideas of government only. If the public transport cannot achieve the standard of emission, the government how to promote their plans of improving air quality to the citizens? It is very hard to convince us to change our daily habit! In order to preventing more people will be come down with by bad air quality, the government should take action as soon as possible.