HONG KONG ~ The renowned conductor in charge of Hong Kong’s leading orchestra has pulled his family out of the city because of its pollution, a news report said.

Dutch maestro Edo de Waart, who conducts Hong Kong’s acclaimed Philharmonic Orchestra, told the Sunday Morning Post he had moved his wife and two children to the US state of Wisconsin to get them away from the worsening smog.

His comments came as city leaders consider a new pollution alert system to give residents better and earlier warning of bad air days. “The air quality is terrible in Hong Kong. I don’t know what it does to the little kids who grow up there, and we just don’t want to take the risk. It is that simple,” De Waart told the Post.