A recent study by a Hong Kong think tank claims that over 10,000 lives are lost each year to air pollution in south China (Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau). The study is here

It doesn't say how they discovered this number or what methodology used, but I'm sort of inclined to say that more than 10,000 people die of airborne respiratory illnesses. I took a bike ride yesterday morning (horrible idea, it reached 100 degrees by 11 am) and found myself covered in small particles of black soot after being out for just an hour. Granted, I did take an old ferry across a dead river to begin my bike journey, and there were massive amounts of diesel fumes wafting across that river. A friend of mine who lives an hour away in nearby Shenzhen said that he has seen his province destroyed (loss of clean air, water, earth, et al) because everyone he knows around him is in the fight of their lives to make as much money as they can. The verdict is still out over whether or not it is too late to improve the environment here, but whatever remediation is done will be very very costly.