POLLUTION

Now the Chinese New Year is over factories are restartiong all over the mainland. I have been unable to see Kowloon almost all day from our (almost) waterfront office in Central thanks to what the H.K. Observatory refers to as "haze". a quick check reveals the pollution index stands as high as 127 in parts of the city. A guide to the index is that 0-25 is Low, 26-50 is Medium with no long-term health effects, 51-100 is High with long-term health effects if exposed to these levels over a long time. Above 100 (Very High) they start advising people to stay indoors and avoid strenuous activity - except they advise people very quietly as they don't actually want anyone to hear the warning. Scarily the scale goes to 500 - if this is 127 then i dread to think what 500 is like - but Hong Kong's record is apparently a "mere" 178.

In the 2 years i have been here I have never heard of a "Low" reading, and I have rarely heard of a reading of "Medium", and then only once or twice, The index is consistently at High or Very High, implying long-term health effects for all of us who live here.

On the plus side - it could be worse - we could live in Singasnore.

On that cheery note I'm off for a weekend of sailing in our polluted harbour, jogging round the polluted peak, and walking in the polluted country parks, with a few beers thrown in on Saturday night at a leaving drinks for good measure.

I shall try to post something over the weekend. though I'm not sure if I, or my laptop, are up to the task having never tried to post from home before.