Scientists highlight pollutant problem

inYIXING, Jiangsu - Chinese and foreign scientists on Monday called for more attention to tackle urgent environmental issues other than climate change, as homemade and imported pollutants threaten people's health.

"Recent studies show that some chemical pollutants' air concentrations remain surprisingly high in parts of Africa and Asia, where these chemicals were never extensively used," Kevin C Jones, a professor at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, told an environmental forum.

Jones said based on his study program, conducted in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the air concentration of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), a chemical pollutant, remains 1,000 or even 10,000 times higher in China, India and Africa, than in Europe and North America.