SCMP Pollution Letter
People don't generally move to Hong Kong for the fresh air - there are usually career drivers behind the move here, but the question really has to be 'How much is living in this polluted environment really worth in dollar terms?', or put another way 'Is the boost in my career by taking a job here worth exposing myself to the environment in Hong Kong?'.
It is a hard question to answer, particularly if you are inflicting the polluted environment here in Hong Kong on your family as well.
Here is a Letter to the Editor that appeared in the SCMP on Thursday November 2007 that gives one perspective. It is entitled
'Living in heavily polluted HK has been bitter-sweet experience'
I am an Australian who has been living here for only 12 months and while I have enjoyed my time, I can hardly say Hong Kong has been a model city to be envied by the rest of the world.
For the first time in my 30 years on this planet I have worried every day about what my living conditions are doing to my body - and what the long-term effects will be, even after I return to a clean environment.
You can't drink the tap water, or eat fish caught locally, although you probably do this unwittingly. You can't dine out with confidence until you've had your hepatitis shots and you can't avoid MSG.
How can anyone relax at a local restaurant knowing that the vegetables have been grown in mainland soil, soaking up chemicals and heavy metals from one of its abused waterways, 90 per cent of which are polluted?
I now know when I come home from a walk outside, I am not getting sick, my throat simply hurts from the pollution. My newly acquired persistent cough is a symptom of being poisoned by industrial diesel fumes and the fact that I am getting pimples for the first time in my life in my thirties is a testament to the disgusting environmental conditions.
I have to apologise to my overseas visitors for the smells emanating from the sewers, for the blasts of diesel fumes on the Star Ferry, for the pointless trip to The Peak to see the smog, for the dead and bloated fish on the rubbish tip-style waterfronts of the 'beautiful' outlying islands and for avoiding most of the city's local eateries unless my guests have been vaccinated.
Before I arrived in Hong Kong, I was planning on starting a family. Now I'm so worried about what only 12 months in Hong Kong has done to my health I have booked a raft of tests for when I get home, including those for detecting high levels of mercury and other heavy metals. This would never have been a concern back home. Living in Hong Kong has been a bitters-weet experience.
The inescapable inference from this letter is that one would have to think hard before leaving a place where you are forced to breathe clean air and live in a large house, and swap it for this polluted environment in Hong Kong in order to make a little more money, or further your career.
This is particularly so in our seniority-driven occupation where it is not always so easy to move sideways into a comparable position in another airline. Almost invariably a demotion is required in order to move between airlines. You could find yourself, having invested some time here, trapped in an environment you and your family are unhappy with, but unable to move away without taking a considerable hit in terms of career progression.
What price clean air, fresh food, and healthy lifestyle?