Pollution--A serious concern I

　　A blanket fo smog covers the city. Black dust cling s to everything--buildings, cars, plants. Taiyuan, acco rding to the asian development bank (ADB), is the most pulluted city in china and has the third worst air qual ity in the world.

　　In china, burning coal is the number one cause of a ir pollution. Coal is used for industries and is also t he main source of generation for commercial and residen tial use such as heating and cooking.

　　A senior ADB official says that about 150,000 peopl e a year die in china because of diseases related to ai r pollution. Dr.Liu Hong, of the shanxi medi-cal univer sity in taiyuan reiterates that over the 14 years of he r medical career, she was seen an increase in chronic v ronchitis, asthma and lung cancer, due to the foul qual ity of the air.

　　China, however, is not the sole culprit of air poll ution. According to natural resources defense council(N RDC), in the united states alone, air pollution kills o ver 50,000 people a year--a death toll higher than that of traffic accidents, breast cancer or AIDS. The world health organization's study of austria, france and swit zerland found that longterm exposure to exhaust fumes i n those countries of 21,000 people from resiratory and heart disease. Air pollution from cars caused 30,000 ex tra cases of bronchitis in children, 15,000 hospital ad missions for heart disease, 395,000 asthma attacks in a dults and 162,000 such attacks in children.

　　The quest for developmetn has not only led to damag ing airquality and endangering people's lives, it has a lso had irrevocable consequences to animals and their e nvironment, be it on land or water.

　　污染：受到广泛关注的严重问题(下)