SUBSCRIBE for more on CHINA AIR POLLUTION / FUTURE / HUMANITY / AGENDA 21 / NEW WORLD ORDER http://www.youtube.com/AgendaNWO CHINA AIRPOCOLYPSE - Air Pollution is So Bad in China, Kills 500,000 People Each Year Between 350,000 and 500,000 Chinese die prematurely each year because of the country's disastrous air pollution, says China's former health minister The equivalent of the population of Bristol dies each year in China because of lethal air pollution, according to Chen Zhu, who was the country's Health minister until last year. Mr Chen, who is also a professor of medicine and a leading molecular biologist, is the most senior government official to put a human cost on the smog that regularly clouds Chinese skies. Until recently, any mention of deaths relating to pollution was strictly censored. Mr Chen's claim came in a commentary in December's issue of the Lancet, co-written with Wang Jinnan, Ma Guoxia and Zhang Yanshen from the Ministry of Environmental China's smog blamed for child's lung cancer Chinese state media boasts of benefits of pollution Chinese city of Harbin shrouded in smog China invests £235 billion to tackle pollution Pollution pushes Shanghai towards semen crisis "Studies by the World Bank, WHO, and the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning on the effect of air pollution on health concluded that between 350 000 and 500000 people die prematurely each year as a result of outdoor air pollution in China," Mr Chen and his fellow authors noted. He added that air pollution has become "the fourth biggest threat to the health of Chinese people" (behind heart disease, dietary risk and smoking) and that lung cancer is "now the leading cause of death from malignant tumours in the country". Mr Chen said China "now produces the largest number of major pollutants in the world", and accounts for half the world's coal consumption. The estimate that the authors quoted, however, is lower than the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study, also published in the Lancet, which estimated that airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) caused 1.2 million premature deaths in China in 2010 alone. Mr Chen's commentary said the Chinese government has now enacted "tough measures" in order to fight the smog. "According to research results from the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, 200,000 people will be prevented from dying prematurely each year if the annual level of PM in Chinese cities reaches the first level standard of 40 micrograms per cubic metre, as set out in the newly revised China National Ambient Air Quality Standards," he wrote. Smoking remains the leading cause of lung cancer, but the number of smokers is falling while lung cancer rates are still rising. The Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in the northern city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province China and Iran join the space race Stunning images taken by crane driver of the high rise skyline of Shanghai China's villages vanish amid rush for the cities China's vanishing villages china "air pollution" newspaper news media airpocolypse pollution city beijing "beijing china" smog shanghai "shanghai china" weather change dirty winter normal "smog beijing" electricity electric "china steel" expat "british expat" asia "far east" "power station" car "green car" population "real estate" life "health alert" airport travel finance economy chinese health "health care" healthcare trends trending traffic 2014 "agenda nwo" hong kong alex jones infowars swine flu virus avian flu gerald celente bitcoin gold silver rmb yuan usd david icke lindsey williams corruption bbc A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island , Minamikojima and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea Japan says China air defence zone over dispute islands is 'dangerous' So it became national news when, starting from December, Shanghai, Nanjing, and other cities in that region were cloaked in heavy smog for about a week. Schools and highways were closed, and many flights were canceled. Now China has a smog belt that extends from Beijing all the way to Shanghai. It took a little more than three years to build up the high speed railway that connects Beijing and Shanghai, but it took less than two years for smog to spread from Beijing to Shanghai. At this rate, the nationalization of smog will be accomplished in even less time. pm2.5 quality of life health alert population density greenpeace green peace A couple in protective masks walk under haze in Shanghai, China, Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. Shanghai authorities ordered schoolchildren indoors and halted all construction Friday as China's financial hub suffered one its worst bouts of air pollution, bringing visibility down to a few dozen meters and obscuring the city's spectacular skyline.

• published: 11 Jan 2014
• views: 4700