In January, 2013, a hazardous dense haze covered 1·4 million km2 of China and affected more than 800 million people. This winter, again, northern China is being hit by a heavy haze.According to the Global Burden of Disease Study,a frightening 3·2 million people died from air pollution in 2010-2·1 million were from Asia. Meanwhile, the number of paediatric patients with pneumonia dramatically increased in China.Experts warned that China's haze could be “more horrible than the SARs epidemic”. “Haze weather is more carcinogenic than cigarettes”, declared Zhong Nanshan (Director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases). While smoking has fallen in China, the prevalence of lung cancer has increased, most probably due to air pollution. In addition to respiratory diseases and cancer, the haze also substantially affects prevalence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
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