China exports pollution across Pacific along with phones and TVs, says study

Source: Toronto Star

Pollution from China’s export manufacturers is travelling across the Pacific Ocean to reach the U.S. West Coast, according to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study is the first to quantify pollution reaching the West Coast from the Chinese manufacturing sector that produces mobile phones to televisions for global export, according to a statement about the study from the University of California, Irvine, where one of the authors is based.

Los Angeles sees at least one extra day a year of smog that exceeds federal limits because of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emitted by Chinese factories producing for export, the analysis found. China’s economic ascent has been accompanied by a surge in pollution and the World Bank estimates that the Asian nation has 16 of the 20 most-polluted cities globally.

“We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us,” Steven Davis, a co-author of the study and an earth system scientist at the University of California, Irvine, said in the statement. “Given the complaints about how Chinese pollution is corrupting other countries’ air, this paper shows that there may be plenty of blame to go around.”


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