Please take a look at the new website (leavinghongkong.com) and sign the petition for cleaner air (links below). The main aim of both the site and petition is to apply pressure to make the Government to do something about Hk's air pollution.

Despite the name of the website we are not intending to leave HK (or Lamma!) at the moment but hope to apply pressure by highlighting the fact that people are thinking about leaving because of the pollution problem.

Anyway, your thoughts would be appreciated plus any help (in the way of publicity/signatures etc.) you might be able to give e.g. by sending on emails to friends.

Every little helps.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/581502310

http://leavinghongkong.com/

Please sign!!!

It'll only take you 30 secs. If you're worried about having your name on the petition that will start the revolution, don't worry - sign anonymously.

Comments on the website and forum also welcome.

Thanks!

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“We can confirm that the ferry has sunk."

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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

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“We can confirm that the ferry has sunk."

Interesting comments on this thread.

I came to Lamma Island last March (1 year ago) for just short of 3 weeks holiday. We (the missus and I) had come to Hong Kong a year before but found a week wasn't enough and this time we wanted self-catering so Lamma seemed the ideal destination.

As the holiday progressed I developed a cough which became worse and worse as the days went on. The biggest issue was night-time and going to sleep and I was coughing until I finally fell asleep. Oddly enough my missus (who is ethnically chinese) was not effected.

Immediately I boarded the aircraft, I never coughed again so clearly there are health issues. I did wonder if our proximity to the power station was a factor and not the general pollution. I don't remember coughing while on Hong Kong Island or the mainland, just in the evenings and night-time while on Lamma itself.

One of the main reasons I decided to leave HK was that the kids were constantly getting upper respiratory tract infections -- my son had pnuemonia twice. Interestingly, and bizarrely considering that pollution is seemingly much much worse in Central, it was on Lamma that my son was most affected too, with his persistent cough easing when in town.

Thank you Samx and Plumsden for your comments. It's interesting that you both suspect Lamma as being the possible cause of your health worries in HK - I think that most of us Lammaites believe that we have much cleaner air than the urban areas of HK, but maybe we're wrong. It certainly looks cleaner here - often I leave a sunny Lamma and arrive in a smoggy Central - but probably the power station does dump some of its airborne respiratory particles in the surrounding area.

Whatever, the general air quality in Hong Kong, Lamma included, is abysmal and you cannot escape it except by leaving the region. The problem for many of us is that we have jobs and livelihoods here - enjoy living here - and if we go somewhere else who knows what the outcome might be? So there's the quandary - take your chances and leave or take your chances and stay. For many of us it's a difficult decision to make. To try and make it easier we are trying to encourage debate on these subjects in the discussion forums at http://leavinghongkong.com/phpBB2/

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“We can confirm that the ferry has sunk."

Obviously the pollution is a great concern - it has been for me since I moved here. But I haven't noticed its overt effect on my health (not saying that there hasn't been an effect).

But my eldest son (4 yrs old) has developed a night-time cough that we're afraid may be becoming chronic. And it does seem to be a bit worse with me here on Lamma than at mamma's place on ApLeiChau. This cough began about the time my son began regular weekend visits to my home in Tai peng. I have been assuming that if there is more than a coincidental worsening of the cough here on Lamma that it would be due to factors local to my own house. So I've been cleaning more thoroughly and have stripped the plaster off the wall where there had been mold growing. But now this thread is alarming me with concern that there might be some Lamma-wide effect. If there's anything to this it's very significant and needs to be seriously investigated. If enough anecdotal evidence arises I would think we ought to put pressure on the Dept. of Health (and Hong Kong Electric?) to launch a proper study.

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

Yeh right - they are so concerned that Hong kong electric might investigate air quality on lamma.

Do you really think they give a shit that a few gweilo's cough?

Perhaps the poor air quality comes from excessive amounts of methane from dog and cat shit deposited on the island and compounded by the tourists every weekend bringing their dogs to Hong Kongs 'outhouse' to shit.

Christ, and I get fined if I spit or dont wrap up my fucking gum when throwing it in a bin.

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Age. Fac ut gaudeam

I think it very unlikely that there is any general air pollution on Lamma worse than anywhere else in HK. Though I have no love for HKE, I'm sure that they're following standards for emissions control. Coal power plants have been around for a century, they're well understood. If there were any particulate matter fallout we'd notice it.

My daughter has suffered from asthma for the last year or so. It's particularly bad in the northern NT. Here, she often gets breathless after going to bed; but I don't think that indicates her bedroom is polluted.

There are other sources of pollution and triggers for asthma here. Cement dust (from construcion), animal hair; feathers, pollen, insecticides. Some landlords are too lazy to cut back weeds and just spray highly toxic herbicides carelessly very few weeks or so.
Also Lamma once was a small-scale centre for plastic manufacture. I see bags of various industrial chamicals lying around. I don't know if any are still actively making stuff, but the chemicals will persist for years regardless.

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“We can confirm that the ferry has sunk."

According to the EDP API website, HKE have a monitoring station at Pak Kok.

The EPD publishes annual Air Quality Reports. The latest they have up there looks like 2005.

The HKE readings are in appendix D. They only list nitrogen and sulphur dioxides.

You can compare those against the annual averages for EPD monitored areas (on pages 2 and 5 of the report)

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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

The more I read about this topic the worse it gets. I seem to be spluttering more than usual today too - apparently, air pollutants have a worse effect during cold weather because they don't disperse as easily. Anyway, here's an extract from a Civic Exchange article, which was published by high-flying brokerage CLSA last year - it makes pleasant reading.......

"Particulate matter (PM) concentration (ie. invisible airborne pollutants) is a major concern in Hong Kong, with residents exposed to high levels that exceed even the region's relatively lax standards. For example, Hong Kong's PM levels are about 40% higher than Los Angeles, the city with the worst air pollution in the US.

Throughout Hong Kong people are also experiencing health-threatening concentrations of Ozone, which is chemically reactive and a strong respiratory irritant, and one of the main components of haze (smog).

Thus, even if HK meets its current air quality objectives for PM and Guangdong does the same over the border, significant negative health impacts - including a reduction in life expectancy - are likely. On the other hand, it is also clear that a reduction of air pollution in the region will lead to significant health benefits.

Indeed, there is ample evidence to strongly recommend policy action to establish more stringent standards in order to reduce levels of pollution."

It's a free world and we can do something about it. Or we can choke on it. Or we can leave.

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“We can confirm that the ferry has sunk."

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“We can confirm that the ferry has sunk."