On Feb. 19, 2000 a Symposium on Environmental Health Challenges Facing China was held during the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Co-organized by Dr. Devra Davis, Senior Scientist of the World Resources Institute and a member of the Climate Institute Board, and Dr. Shouzheng Xue of Shanghai Medical University, the Symposium was supported by a grant from the Wallace Global Fund to the Climate Institute.

Presenations were made by six Chinese and U.S. experts-.Shousheng Xue, M.D., Dr. Devra Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., David Wheeler, Ph.D., World Bank, Harvey Belkin, Ph.D., U.S. Geological Survey, Keith Florig, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University,and Grant Tao, M.D.,Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University. Two experts served as Discussants-Paul Schwengels, Ph.D., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Maureen Cropper, Ph.D., World Bank.

Highlights include:

• Although China has improved its use of pollution control technologies and policies, air pollution is still a significant cause of ill health and death. In Shenyang, nearly 17% of excess mortality could be tied to pollution.

• This year China expects nearly one third of the world's cases of lung cancer among women. Lung cancer is higher among rural women than among men, despite the lower smoking rate among women. Several investigators have linked women's increased exposure to dirty cooking and heating fuels indoors to this trend.

• Arsenic and Fluorine are principal causes of the health problems attributed to domestic coal production. Arsenic poisoning and dental and skeletal fluorosis result through air pollution and ingestion through food. Reduction of these problems requires identification of acceptable alternative sources for coals low in these two substances in China.

• Increasing automobile use by 2010 in select Chinese cities is expected to contribute as much as 75% of total nitrogen oxide emissions, 94% of total carbon monoxide emissions, and 98% of total hydrocarbons.

Slides of Several Presentations Follow.

Presentation Options:

Surviving Success: Pollution Control In China

by Hua Wang and David Wheeler of the Development Research Group World Bank

Begin presentation in large or small size.

---

Health Risks from Environmental Pollution in China

by Shouzheng Xue, M.D., Shanghai Medical University
and Devra Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H. World Resources Institute

Begin presentation in large or small size.

---

China's Risk Transition

by H. Keith Florig, Dept. of Engineering and Public Policy of Carnegie Mellon University

Begin presentation* in large or small size.

 

*aesthetically altered for fast loading