China's industries grew astonishingly fast in 2013, and now they are putting "huge pressures" on the environment and causing air pollution to worsen, the country's pollution agency said Tuesday.
Premier Li Keqiang "declared war" on pollution, but it is questionable if China can create a balance between the economy and the environment. China is still too slow in reforming its resource-intensive economy, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement.
"The pace of restructuring and upgrading industries has slowed, the mode of development remains crude, and emissions of atmospheric pollutants have long exceeded environmental capacity," the website said.
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, there are 7 million deaths worldwide each year - that's around 1 in 8 of total global deaths -- as a result of exposure to air pollution. There are about 350,000 to 500,000 premature deaths in China every year, Reuters reported, according to an article in the medical journal "The Lancet."
"Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution; the evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Department for Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, according to Medical News Today.
In China the cause for air pollution on this large a scale is traffic emissions and rapid urbanization, which creates dust from new housing and road building. Only three out of 74 Chinese cities fully complied with state pollution standards in 2013, the ministry said.
Beijing's mayor promised in January to spend $2.4 billion on improving air quality this year as part of an "all-out effort" to reduce pollution, according to a related Reuters report.
The Chinese have taken to combating the smog with facemasks, but this multi-million dollar industry may not be doing its job as many products fail to provide even basic protection. Only nine out of 37 types tested recently by the China Consumers Association met required standards for filtering particles.
The smog is expected to last until Friday, when a cold front will diffuse it, the report said.
