WHO estimates that as many as 17 per cent of all deaths in the Western Pacific region — in which area China contributes the bulk of the population — are linked to one or more environmental health risk. The state of the environment in China is of major health concern that requires urgent systematic multi-agency, multi-sector and multinational response.
Economic growth, increasing motorization, industrialization, urbanization, energy consumption and historic mismanagement of natural resources generate major air pollution problems for China. Large-scale industry relying on coal for energy production contributes to this, particularly in northern provinces. According to the World Bank (2004) Chinese cities make up 16 of the world's 20 most polluted.
Indoor air pollution, primarily from bio-fuel and coal burnt in homes for cooking and heating, is also contributing significantly to ill health in China through increased risk of chronic obstructive airways disease, pulmonary and lung cancers. Indoor air pollution disproportionately harms women, the young, and people from less developed regions of China.
China's river systems suffer a similar predicament, with the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources reporting that 70 per cent of China's rivers and lakes are polluted. However, with development strategies water supply and sanitation coverage continues to improve. 75 per cent of China's population now have access to safe drinking water. Sanitation has improved from a low eight per cent coverage in 1993 to reach half of China's population in 2005, though a huge urban rural divide remains, with only 10 per cent reached in some western underdeveloped regions.
Global climate change poses a significant risk to human health and China is a major global player in this issue as it is the second largest global green-house gas emitter and has a huge population exposed to the harmful effects.