Huang Jiefu, the vice minister of China's Ministry of Health, has disclosed to local media that China will limit vehicle use on 493 streets on 449 cities across the country on April 11, 2010 to facilitate various public health activities to be held on that day.
Huang said that China's urban population had increased from 7% in 1949 to 46% in 2008, however, with the improvement in living standards, a series of problems such as ecological destruction, pollution, traffic congestion and shortage of housing have arisen and these problems have posed hazards to people's life and health. He added that the Chinese government will organize various activities to mark World Health Day in cities throughout the country, answering to the call of the World Health Organization for health cities. Huang estimated that the activities would be involve more than 268 million people in China.
Huang disclosed that in the coming year, China's Ministry of Health and the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee will arrange various activities as part of its efforts to participate in the WHO's Healthy City initiative.
April 7 is designated as World Health Day. The theme of the 2010 World Health Day was Urbanization and Health. This theme was aimed to draw people's attention to the impact that urbanization has on public health and individual health and to call on them to live a healthy lifestyle.
