Confusion over the government's online pollution statistics and news that roadside pollution hit its worst-ever level last year have inspired a rival website delivering the city's latest air-quality figures.
The site by web developer Steve Holmes lets users generate custom air-pollution graphs by time interval, pollutant and monitoring station.
'The government is fairly transparent about the data,' said the 42-year-old. 'But it does not present it in a readable way.'
Holmes, a Briton who founded Thought Sauce, a Hong Kong-based web-app-development consultancy, together with friends from another startup, 83bits, came up with a program that could access and retrieve Environmental Protection Department data every hour and present it on their website.
Holmes said he was especially worried about pollution now that he has a two-year-old son. But it was an incident seven years ago involving the competitive mountain runner's own health that triggered his concern: He suffered an asthma attack during a race.
'I have never experienced asthma anywhere in the world apart from Hong Kong,' he said. He checked the weather report and saw that the pollution level was 'high'.
