Pollution from China Reaches U.S., Study Finds

According to a new report from the US National Academy of Sciences, polluting industries in China are having a big role in increasing pollution in Los Angeles and other states of US. As there cannot be any national boundaries to curb pollution, smog from China is continuously drifting into the United States across the Pacific Ocean. It may sound strange, but the report is showing evidence of the phenomenon.

The report noted that cities such as Los Angeles, which already has its own grey haze problem, may get as much as one extra day of smog a year as a result of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide coming from China.

China does a lot of production for Western countries, and the research said that in 2006, as much as 17 to 36 percent of the country’s pollution comes from export industries. About one fifth of that could be traced back to U.S.-specific exports.

Trade agreements with China need to include provisions for cutting the amount of pollution coming from the country, a problem that neighbors Japan and South Korea have faced for years. But China has said that it wants help from the West to curb the problem, since the production causing the pollution is for goods heavily sought by the West.

“International cooperation to reduce transboundary transport of air pollution must confront the question of who is responsible for emissions in one country during production of goods to support consumption in another,” the report said.

It doesn’t matter who takes the lead on cutting back on these emissions as long as it gets done. While the West Coast may be getting the brunt of the hit in the United States, pollution and the greenhouse effect continue to be a global problem.

Agencies/Canadajournal