Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Each year, air pollution kills 400,000 Chinese people. This was revealed in a 2003 survey, never published, by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning.

Wang Jinan, head engineer of the Academy, said air pollution killed 300,000 people each year and another 111,000 died due to pollution in workplaces and homes.

"It's a conservative figure. The real figure could be higher," said Wang in an international conference on air pollution organised by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) together with the US Environmental Protection Agency, the environmental directorate of the European Commission and the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Territory.

The results confirmed statistics issued by the World Bank, of 400,000 deaths in China per year from illnesses linked to pollution, like those afflicting the respiratory and cardiac systems.

Wang said: "The figures have not been made available to the general public because governments, especially at the provincial level, do not want bad publicity." Outdoor pollution is caused most of all by emissions from industrial plants (primarily those powered by coal) as well as by exhaust from vehicles. Indoor heating systems also cause much pollution. One-third of residents live in cities with "level 2" pollution, which is hazardous for the health, and another 116 million live in "level 3" or "very dangerous" cities.

On Monday 24 October, SEPA unveiled a project to monitor pollution in large cities with the intent of blacklisting the most polluted ones.   "The list will be announced regularly to warn cities of deteriorating air quality," said Zhang Lijun, deputy director of SEPA. He said that in 2004, emission of sulphur oxides from coal plants reached 26 million tons, ranking highest in the world, causing some 30% of the country's land territory to be ravaged by acid rain.

Beijing is the second most polluted among China's 84 largest cities, with an air pollution index (API) of 139. It is surpassed only by Lanzhou, the capital of the north-west province of Gansu, with an index of 142. Fifteen of the largest cities, including Shanghai, have an index which exceeds 100, meaning that the air is "slightly polluted". Only seven cities have an API which is lower than 50, which indicates normal air. Among these are Lhasa in the autonomous region of Tibet and Guilin in the southern autonomous region of Guangxi.