Air pollution in notoriously smoggy Hong Kong is three times worse than the government admits, Greenpeace claimed yesterday.
The environmental pressure group said the air pollution index is out of date and giving misleadingly low readings about the levels of pollutants in Hong Kong's air.
Greenpeace said if new World Health Organization (WHO) standards were applied, the readings on Wednesday would be more than three times higher than official government figures.
Hong Kong uses an air pollution index which operates on a scale of one to 500. The highest ever reading was just over 200, recorded in September.
However, Greenpeace claims that if WHO standards were applied, Wednesday's reading of 91 would have been 314 -- more than 50 per cent higher than the highest recorded level.
Under the index, anything over 100 is considered very high, with readings above 200 prompting advisories for people to stay indoors to avoid breathing in pollution.
Greenpeace said Hong Kong's existing Air Quality Objectives (AQO), used to set the standards for its pollution index, were established in 1987 and no review had been undertaken since.
Hong Kong's smog is blamed on vehicle emissions and pollution drifting down from neighboring heavily industrialized southern China, where environmental controls are lax.
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