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Study: Indoor Pollution Kills 2.2 Million Young Chinese

   Peter Simpson | Beijing 17 May 2010
   Chinese  walk  past a pipe releasing smoke next to a pedestrian street
   while  the  city  center  is shrouded in fog, caused by air pollution,
   Beijing (File Photo)

Photo: AP

   Chinese  walk  past a pipe releasing smoke next to a pedestrian street
   while  the  city  center  is shrouded in fog, caused by air pollution,
   Beijing (File Photo)

   A  new  report  released  in  China says more than two million Chinese
   youths  die  each  year  from  health  problems  related to indoor air
   pollution, with nearly half of them under five years of age.

   Modern, industrial China is synonymous with air pollution.

   But  now  Chinese  citizens face another deadly environmental threat -
   one  that  lurks  in  their  homes,  schools,  and  places of work and
   leisure.

   A new report released Sunday by the state-run China Center for Disease
   and  Control  and  Prevention,  reveals  more  than  two million young
   Chinese  die  each year from in-door pollution. The report says indoor
   pollution levels can often be 5-10 times higher than those measured in
   the nation's notoriously bad outdoor air.

   Goods  and  materials  used  in  the home, schools, office and leisure
   place  - from roof insulation to sofas - are manufactured using lethal
   toxins such as formaldehyde, benzene, ammonia and radon.

   The study, which was reported Monday by China's state media, indicates
   that  one million of those prematurely killed by such chemicals in the
   home and schools are children under the age of five.

   The research has shocked international groups that monitor the affects
   of pollution and hazardous chemicals on Chinese citizens.

   Jamie  Choi, head of the China Toxins Campaign's for Greenpeace China,
   says  the  government, though aware of the health risks caused by such
   chemicals, needs to implement tighter regulations.

   "These  are  absolutely shocking figures and definitely go to show how
   important  hazardous  chemical  management  in this country should be,
   although  it's  not  something a lot of people are paying attention to
   right now," said Jamie Choi. "It is obviously going to become a bigger
   and   bigger   problem.  There  definitely  has  to  be  a  much  more
   comprehensive manner in which the Chinese government tackles hazardous
   chemicals  and  indoor  pollution.  There  has  to  be a comprehensive
   management system and that is the route they should be taking."

   The  reports  says  formaldehyde poses the biggest threat. It is often
   found  in  building materials and new furniture in China. It is slowly
   released into indoor environments over the course of several years.

   The  report  says  long-term  exposure  to such substances can cause a
   range  of  health  problems  including  respiratory  diseases,  mental
   impairment  and  cancer, with young children, fetuses in-utero and the
   elderly at most risk.

   UNICEF spokesman Dale Rutstein says the reported one million deaths of
   children  under  the age of five from indoor pollution is alarming. He
   says  it  undermines  the  great work China has made in recent decades
   cutting infant mortality rates.

   "China  has  made  huge  strides  in reducing the under five mortality
   rates  in  the  last  few  decades.  They have come down significantly
   through things like immunization and women's health - safe motherhood,
   safe  childbirth,"  said  Rutstein.  "In  general, child mortality has
   significantly  declined  and  other types of dangers now emerge in the
   statistics.  It's  logical that environmental health and toxins in the
   environment  would  begin  to  show  up as one of the major threats to
   children."

   No  one  from  the China Center for Disease and Control and Prevention
   was available for comment on the study.

   China's  rapid industrialization over three decades has made it one of
   the world's most polluted countries. Most cities are smothered in smog
   while  some  360 million citizens lack access to clean drinking water.
   Sixty  millions  of  those  citizens  are  forced  to  drink  stagnant
   supplies.

   Millions  die each year as a result of the bad air and polluted water,
   yet  environmental  and  health  concerns  remain  low  on the list of
   priorities because economic growth remains the main focus.

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