WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, UNITED NATIONS, December 16, 2006: Experts say Asia is too slow to enact regional pacts limiting harmful emissions and reducing pollution. Air quality researchers at a regional conference this week called on Asian nations to formulate a pollution control mechanism after studies showed an increasing number of cross-border environmental problems. Japan says soot from Chinese power stations is poisoning its lakes. Coal emissions from India and China are polluting the air in Bangladesh while land-clearing forest fires in Indonesia routinely send a choking haze across Singapore and Malaysia. These factors, experts say, have turned Asia into the world’s most polluted region.
Michal Krzyzanowski, a regional adviser on air quality and health for the World Health Organization said, “Transboundary air pollution is a big problem, especially in densely-populated areas in East Asia. At the moment, there is no mechanism to regulate this transboundary problem. You need to agree on emission ceilings and common efforts to reduce the pollution.” He said it took more than 10 years for Europe to come together to work out a similar regional mechanism.