World Bank estimates of hundreds of thousands of premature Chinese deaths each year from polluted air and water are baseless, a Chinese vice-minister said today.
The Financial Timessaid this month the Chinese government, which did the survey in partnership with the World Bank, had asked the lender not to publish the estimates for fear they could trigger social unrest.
The survey says about 460,000 Chinese die prematurely each year from breathing polluted air and drinking dirty water.
But Zhou Jian, vice minister of China's state environmental protection administration, said linking environment and health was a "very complex scientific issue" and that it was impossible to estimate how much of a person's life pollution shaves off.
"I don't dare conclude that any country can clearly and accurately say that because of environmental problems, or because of pollution problems, that people's lives are cut by a certain amount, that they are made sick or even die," he said.
"I think the World Bank report lacks a precise, scientific foundation, regardless of how many people it says die in China because of pollution."
China, beset by growing public alarm about acrid air and toxic water, has promised to cut major industrial pollutants by 10 per cent between 2006 and 2010. But last year the country failed to meet the annual target.
The study puts the cost of deaths from diarrhoea and cancer caused by drinking polluted water at 66 billion yuan, pointing to 66,000 premature deaths a year.