ECONOMIC GROWTH IN CHINA THREATENED BY POLLUTED ENVIRONMENT

An 18-month review by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that China's severely polluted environment has caused "significant damage to human health," as well as the nation's prospects for continued economic expansion. The Chinese government said last year that

pollution cost $64 billion in economic losses in 2004. The OECD report stated that by 2020, China will have 600,000 premature deaths annually and 20 million cases of respiratory illness a year because of pollution. Overall cost of health damage will equal 13 percent of gross domestic product. Some 190 million people are estimated to be suffering from illnesses related to dirty drinking water. More than 30,000 children die every year due to polluted water. Farmers across the country have protested tainted water supplies and ruined farmland.