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Los Angeles fixed smog problem and Shanghai can too
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Dear Editor,
I was in Shanghai in mid-December taking an intensive Mandarin course. For several days in a row the air pollution levels went way over 500 due to a perfect storm — pollution from the northeast migrating down and mixing with Shanghai’s equally impressive level of air pollution and a stalled weather pattern holding the poisonous air pollution (PM2) over the region.
All 14 of us in our class including the teacher were made sick by this. Sore throats, burning eyes, lung and sinus infections, low-grade fevers, headaches and malaise. Our group had all of this.
I am sure other people fared much worse, such as the four young men who died in an iPhone assembly plant.
It was suspected that overwork, poor air quality in the plant and pre-existing lung conditions combined with this event to kill them.
The news there reported a marked increase in birth defects in recent years in Shanghai, which is corresponding to the increasing pollution in the air.
The city puts up a facade with its world grand prix auto race, men’s ATP Masters tennis tournament, its PGA golf tournament, its European designer stores, its architectural gems and its claim as a global financial and cultural center.
But the reality is that Shanghai is often toxic. The air is causing birth defects in the babies of naive and unknowing mothers, and causing cancers as well as creating numerous other miserable health conditions for people.
Everyone’s pollution
Remember in the late 60s or early 70s in Los Angeles. This kind of ridiculous pollution was happening then.
Californians became alarmed and outraged and did something about it. For the sake of everyone’s health, certainly these same kinds of measures need to be immediately implemented in Shanghai.
And Americans should get involved. After all, it is everyone’s pollution.
The Western world is as responsible as the Chinese for this problem.
US car makers are putting out thousands of cars there without the same pollution controls found in America, and our manufacturers with factories there are skirting US Environmental Protection Authority standards.
A lot of people have already been unnecessarily harmed and many more will be harmed due to their gross negligence. The measures that are needed may cut into some companies’ profit temporarily but in the long run the economy will be better, and people won’t be getting poisoned.
Peter McClaran, Hawaii, USA
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