460,000 die prematurely from pollution in China each year

ABOUT 460,000 Chinese die prematurely each year from breathing polluted city air and drinking dirty water, a World Bank study reports.

The Financial Times reported yesterday that the Chinese government, the bank’s partner in the research project, had asked the lender not to publish the estimates for fear they could trigger social unrest.

The conference version of the study says some estimates of the physical and economic cost of pollution have been omitted because of uncertainties about calculation methods and their application.