Lawmaker urges World Bank to publish China figures - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Lawmaker urges World Bank to publish China figures
Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:59PM EDT

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker on Monday
urged World Bank President Robert Zoellick to release mortality
figures the congressman said were omitted from a draft bank
report on the effects of pollution in China.

Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, in a letter to
Zoellick made public on Monday, applauded the bank's efforts
to investigate the effects of pollution problems in China.

But Frank said he was troubled to read that Chinese health
and environment officials suppressed estimates of the nearly
half-million people who die prematurely each year from
breathing polluted air and drinking dirty water, and the parts
of China that were worst hit.

"I write to urge you to release this data in order to achieve
the report's goal of making public the best and most inclusive
information available on the effects of environmental problems,"
said Frank, who is chairman of the House Financial Services
Committee.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1637641020070717

[papau]

1. I really like Barney Frank - best Congressman I've ever voted for n/t

n/t