Monday, July 02, 2007

Censured report on premature Chinese deaths

The Scratching Post has a nice blog about heavy metals in Chinese food. More along these lines came out of the Financial Asia Pacific Times which has reported that the Chinese government is pressuring the World Bank to remove nearly a third of its report on pollution in China because of concerns that findings on premature deaths could provoke social unrest.

The report found that about 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year, mainly from air pollution in large cities. Sixteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China, according to previous World Bank research.

Missing from this report are the research project’s findings that high air-pollution levels in Chinese cities is leading to the premature deaths of 350,000-400,000 people each year. A further 300,000 people die prematurely each year from exposure to poor air indoors, according to advisers, but little discussion of this issue survived in the report because it was outside the ambit of the Chinese ministries which sponsored the research.

Another 60,000-odd premature deaths were attributable to poor-quality water, largely in the countryside, from severe diarrhoea, and stomach, liver and bladder cancers.

5 comments:

K T Cat said...

Kelly, your comment over at my post on China suggested that the absence of real concern evident at the Greenpeace sites were an oversight.

That would be like ESPN not talking about the Red Sox or the Yankees being an oversight.

Greenpeace has little to do with the environment any more than most of the rest of the so-called "green" movement. No one on Earth compares to the Chinese when it comes to flat-out raping the planet. Those heavy metals get washed out into the sea where it goes into the marine life. I'll track down and post an article I saw about ash clouds from China contributing 10-15% of the smog on the US west coast.

And the outrage and protests about this are...where, exactly?

I apologize for the length of this comment. You know, I'm sure that I really meant to just say this.

I blame Bush.

:-)

Kelly the little black dog said...

Actually this is Cheney's week to take the blame. ;)

Dr. Zaius said...

"...could provoke social unrest."

I would like to see a little more social unrest.

K T Cat said...

It's Cheney's week? Well, don't expect me to keep up with current events. I still listen to Louis Prima and the Monkees and watch Errol Flynn movies.

I've become unstuck in time. :-)

Kelly the little black dog said...

KT,
not a bid time to be unstuck in.

Dr. Z,
I agree. A little social unrest seems to be the only thing that gets a government's attention.