Decorations lead to death

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Air pollution is a prominent problem in China and it has been drawing a lot of public/government attention for years, especially after Beijing won the bid for 2008 Olympic. However, another category of air pollution, the indoor air pollution, has always been omitted and now it is time to pay more attention due to the increasing cancer incident and medical expense related to this type of environmental problem. Recently, the China's first case of a child killed by toxic fumes given off by indoor decoration materials has come before the court and a compensation of 170,000 Yuan (AUD$27,900 ) was awarded to the plaintiff. The incident is about a four-year-old girl was diagnosed with acute leukemia and died in August 2005 after staying in her newly decorated apartment for 10 months.

In most developing countries, when they talk about indoor air pollution, it is always about the kitchen smoke generated from burning stalks, wood and low-quality coal. However, with rapid urbanization and development, indoor air pollution from buliding materials becomes a new member of the pollution catergory. China, for instance, the incidents of leukemia among children in the country’s metropolises is worsening within the past decades and there is a rising trend of the children of migrant workers catching blood diseases. In Beijing and Shanghai, the incidence of leukemia in children is 4.6 per 100,000, while the highest is about 7 in 100,000 in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. It is believed tha more than half of the blood cancer patients are victims of indoor air pollution from home and school refurbishment and decoration.

Indeed, air pollutants emit from architectural materials and building interiors has long been an issue in many developed countries. Over the past decade, increasingly stringent VOCs (voltaic organic compounds, the major indoor air pollutant) regulations have led to the development of water-based solvent and other alternatives for solvent-based paint. However, in most developing countries including China, they are still stick to solvent-based paint and other low quality building materials, that lots of such material are already abandoned or banned by developed countries.

I believed the reason behind is not only because of the lower environmental awareness/knowledge in developing countries but also the existence of wealth gaps. For most cleaner and better technology, it is very hard for the industry and the market in developing world to absorb without foreign aids. But in current global economic and politic systems, newer and cleaner technologies are always developed by private corporations and such technologies will only be transferred through the market instead of free transfer as humanity aids. It sounds to be again that injustice is one of the inherent characteristic of our society.

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