Hong Kong hardware store owner Wang Chi-chuen has rung up some brisk sales in recent months. They actually filter dust. That's true, but they won't protect anybody from the other filth that is in the air. Every day of the year, Hong Kongers young and old breathe in a foul combination of toxic fumes, mostly from vehicle exhaust and tiny motes of grime and grit known as respirable suspended particulates. The situation is now so bad that Hong Kong is sometimes described as being worse in some pollution criteria than the planet's ultimate urban nightmare, Mexico City.
Air pollution is no new problem.
The former British administration ignored all the warning signs, at first too cozy with big business and then distracted in the closing years by its guerrilla warfare with China over political reforms. But the poor state of the air has now reached crisis point - especially for a city that aspires to be a regional hub and a world center of finance to match New York, London and Tokyo. These days, the spectacular vistas across the harbor from Victoria Peak are obscured by a blue-brown curtain. According to the Hong Kong Observatory, the number of bad-haze days from January to September this year was more than double the figure for 1998, up from 14 to 31. Visitors are not blind to what is happening.