# Regional Air Pollution



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Does your city suffer from an air pollution problem due to industry / activities in neighboring cities / countries?

*Hong Kong* suffers from an increasingly problematic air quality problem, of which about 80-90% of the haze is blown across the border from industries in southern China. Hong Kong businessmen are being urged to clean up their factories in the mainland to help reduce air pollution.


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## OtAkAw (Aug 5, 2004)

ALmost every city in the world suffers a pollution problem, although at different levels.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

OtAkAw said:


> ALmost every city in the world suffers a pollution problem, although at different levels.


But not all cities have a domestic pollution problem only. Pollutants oftentimes blow across the border.


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## Zaki (Apr 16, 2005)

Ya Toronto usually experiences a lot of smoggy days when its own pollution is combined with air pollution blowing over from the US.


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## Very Controversial (Dec 4, 2005)

Kuala Lumpur air is not that clear as 5 years ago. Anyways, what would the temperature of cities near the equator be without humans disturbance towards the air? What was the temperature of cities near the equator during the Ice Age? These are facts I still wonder about.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Indonesian forest fires have a very large geographic range in SE Asia.


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## builder1010 (Dec 21, 2005)

hkskyline said:


> Indonesian forest fires have a very large geographic range in SE Asia.


That , I agree.

And even worst, the indonesians itself is complaining that southeast asia countries should not complain because this is an *internal affair*

Well, if u are affecting us with the fire that u are setting off. thats not an internal affair, its an World Affair!


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## chicagogeorge (Nov 30, 2004)

Los Angeles has the worst air pollution in the United States.





















Houston is second worst 











Chicago


























Athens Greece has very bad air pollution


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## WhiteMagick (May 28, 2006)

OtAkAw said:


> ALmost every city in the world suffers a pollution problem, although at different levels.


but when you read about executives and workers leaving HK because of air pollution you wonder how much HK is really experiencing.

Those L.A. pics are really bad!!


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## monkeyronin (May 18, 2006)

Southern Ontario has a huge industrial base, which alone causes plenty of pollution, made even worse by stuff blowing in from the US, making Toronto have quite a bit of smog.

I took this in July, hard to say, but I think this is probably an average day in summer. either way, conditions greatly improve in winter.


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## alex3000 (Oct 20, 2002)

@chicagogeorge,
That's not even pollution (Los Angeles). :sleepy:


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## chicagogeorge (Nov 30, 2004)

alex3000 said:


> @chicagogeorge,
> That's not even pollution (Los Angeles). :sleepy:


Are you saying that it's not pollution because you've seen worse, or it's not pollution because it's cloudy or something else? It doesn't look like cloud cover to me, and I never heard of a foggy L.A.

L.A. has the worst air pollution in America. 

http://lungaction.org/reports/sota05_cities.html#anncitiespp


This is smog over L.A.


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## LosAngelesSportsFan (Oct 20, 2004)

chicagogeorge said:


> Are you saying that it's not pollution because you've seen worse, or it's not pollution because it's cloudy or something else? It doesn't look like cloud cover to me, and I never heard of a foggy L.A.
> 
> L.A. has the worst air pollution in America.
> 
> ...


these are indeed smog, however the first few pics are not smog, rather the marine layer, which is fog and moisture that rolls in from the pacific, and even locals don't know the difference. The only time you can see smog in LA is during a hot stretch in summer, rest of the year, its fine. Not saying LA doesn't have a problem, just trying to clear things up a bit. also, the smog in LA has improved DRAMATICALLY in the last 10 years, where Houston and the Central Valley of California area also competing for the smog capital title. Our biggest polluters are the Ports (which are being greened and cleaning up extensively, LAX, and of course the Idling cars and trucks, which have the most stringent pollution controls in the world.


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## chicagogeorge (Nov 30, 2004)

^^

Well, I don't see the difference between the two sets, and the first photos were titled L.A. smog on flickr which is where I found them. However, I'll take your word for it, since you live in L.A. 

You are right about Houston, and other parts of California, challenging L.A.'s smog title.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

I have heard that the Central Valley is where the bad smog lies nowadays...

As for here...It seems to be considered "good" all the time here. Hartford supposedly is one of the "least polluted" metros in the US...but there are days in the summer when the smog gets so high that visibility goes down to zero.


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## jacobboyer (Jul 14, 2005)

My 2005 expedition came from Los Angeles and it has something called california emissions system on it is this a must have for cars in LA.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Yeah, I think that so...California has some harsh pollution laws...

Most of the East Coast states follow suit to it as well.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

But LA smog is caused by locals, and not blown in from Mexico or Asia. On the other hand, smog in eastern Canada and Hong Kong have a large foreign component.


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## jacobboyer (Jul 14, 2005)

I actually think chicago looks worse than Los Angeles in these pictures.


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## U.K (Jun 22, 2006)

Londons has suffered with air pollution for centuries, It gets worse in the summer months because of the heat blocking the air from clearing heres a few pics i could find.








Heres an old pic I found on Google.


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## eusebius (Jan 5, 2004)

Yes, I can easily compare the bigger cities in Holland to where I live in the east of The Netherlands. Because of the hills, air is rather poor around Ede-Arnhem-Nijmegen (appr 1.2mln) which is halfway the Rhein-Ruhr agglomeration and the 3 big cities of Holland. Huge amounts of transit traffic, one of the busiest rivers in the world, several motorways going east-west and north-south. When I walk the dog up the hills (350ft from just 50ft at the level of the river banks) I often see a thick yellow-grey layer of pollution over said urban area.

Cities surrounded by hills all suffer from poor air. Best way to fight it, is to bring canals and streams into the city and make that air move.

But the Netherlands can only blame themselves. It's no longer like in the 1970s when you could put the blame Manchester or Kraków.


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