City suffers from upsurge on air pollution

Hong Kong has seen a bigger rise in ozone pollution than industrial pollution zones in Guangdong, and this has spurred the government into taking action to crack down on air pollutants.
Environmentalists from the Clean Air Network have urged authorities to take tougher action on air pollutants through transport planning measures, according to SCMP.
The Environmental Protection Department blamed the rise on more easterly winds from the mainland but Clean Air Network stated that local factors contribute to the pollution as well.
Campaigners have studied the data on ozone levels from the Guangdong-HK-Macau air quality, monitoring the database. They discovered that Hong Kong has had a 9.2 percent increase in ozone level recordings between 2010 and 2014, higher than the 6.1 percent increase that was recorded in Guangdong.
Having studied the data from local general air-quality monitoring stations, excluding three that were included in a regional monitoring scheme, they discovered an even greater rise of 17.1 percent. In addition, local stations recorded a 27.2 percent increase in ozone between 2006 and 2014, higher than the 19.5 percent increase in the neighboring province.
According to a Coconuts Hong Kong report, the number of vehicles driving through the three cross-harbor tunnels has increased from 228,000 to over 250,000 between 2005 and 2014. This has caused environmentalists to urge the government to introduce transport planning measures.
Last year, as many as 2,196 people died from air pollution, costing HKD27 billion to public heath, according to the Hedley index.