http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/world/asia/kabuls-pollution-is-real-despite-unpleasant-exaggeration.html
New
York Times
22
January 2013
Kabul Journal
By
ROD NORDLAND
KABUL,
Afghanistan - It has long
been a given that the air pollution in this city gets horrific: on average even
worse than Beijing's
infamous haze, by one measure.
For
nearly as long, there has been the widespread belief by foreign troops and
officials here that - let's be blunt here - feces are a part of the problem.
Canadian
soldiers were even warned about it in predeployment briefings, which cited
reports that one test had found that as many as 30 percent of air samples
contained fecal particles. The Canadians were worried enough that the
government ordered a formal investigation, officials say.
"I've
heard that story for 40 years," said Andrew Scanlon, the head of the
United Nations Environment Program here, who dismissed it as an urban legend.
"I think the need by diplomats for danger-pay raises is what has kept
reports of fecal matter danger very high." [...]