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According to a senior US official, every country should shoulder responsibility for pollution, and China and India have been unfairly characterized as the only polluters.

 

Steven Johnson, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), made the remarks at the US Consulate General in Shanghai on Thursday, in order to correct a report which he says misquoted him as blaming China for causing high mercury deposits in the US.

 

A report in the Financial Times on April 11 entitled, "Toxic Chinese mercury pollution traveling to US" quoted Johnson as saying: "The EPA had traced high levels of 'mercury deposits' in the US to China and India" and "that is the most direct impact of China's pollution on the US".

 

"Unfortunately, I was misquoted and what I said was taken out of context. It's unfair to characterize the pollution coming just from China and India," Johnson said, adding that other countries including the Republic of Korea and the US all contributed to global air pollution.

 

Approximately 2,000 tons of mercury are unleashed on the environment globally every year. Emissions from coal-fired power plants in the US alone amount to 48 ton, he acknowledged.

 

"That's why it's critical that we all work together to address the air pollution issues," he said.

 

Johnson was satisfied with his "productive" China tour, during which a series of agreements and cooperation projects were reached between the respective environmental protection departments.

 

A Sino-US program was launched on Monday to enhance bilateral cooperation in the prevention, management and treatment of hazardous and solid wastes in China, in a bid to reduce their negative impact on human health and ecosystems.

 

The joint initiative, dubbed the "Strategy for Hazardous and Solid Waste Cooperation", was adopted during a meeting between Zhou Shengxian, head of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), and Johnson in Beijing.

 

Further, China and the US and several other nations are developing a program called the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Technologies and Climate Change.

 

Another international project involving China, which aims at the efficient use of coal with zero emissions, is already underway in the US.

 

"Both the US and China are vital to the health of our environment," Johnson said, stressing that the countries should "not only be major contributors to the world economy, but also major contributors to improving environmental health".

 

Through collaborative work, "we can make a difference," he said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2006)