Cancer patient Bui Ngoc Vo is being cared for by his wife at their home in Thuy Nguyen District in Hai Phong City’s Minh Duc Town.

Bui Ngoc Vo left hospital recently to spend his last days battling throat cancer in his home in the northern city of Hai Phong.

The town’s residents are terrified by the increasing number of cancer-related deaths, believed to be caused by pollution from local industry.

In 2006, the city’s Health Department conducted a mortality survey in Minh Duc Town and found 40 out of 142 deaths between 2004 and 2006 were caused by cancer, accounting for a rate of 28 percent.

The department also said in the first six months of 2006, the rate had risen to more than 55 percent.

Over the past two years, between 20 and 30 people have died from cancer each year, pushing the rate up to 70 percent of the town’s death toll, Minh Duc Town People’s Committee Chairman Le Van Hien said.

Hien said most of the cancer victims were young locals, who were diagnosed with serious cancer in their soft palates, stomachs, livers and lungs.

Some people, who had been young and healthy, died within a few months of being diagnosed, he said.

Latest cases

Vo could not walk or speak when Thanh Nien visited his home recently. His throat had swelled and he was looking skeletal.

The smoke stack at Hai Phong Cement Company pumping waste into the air.

“He can’t even swallow a spoonful of soup,” said his wife Cao Thi Pham. “I don’t know how many more days he can live.”

Pham said she and her husband used to work at a nearby stone quarry to support their family of five.

“Early this year, he complained of a sore throat before being diagnosed with throat cancer,” she said.

She also said many of her neighbors, who were previously healthy people, had suddenly sickened and died from cancer.

Pham Thi Hien from Minh Duc Town’s Quyet Tam Village said she was diagnosed with endometrial cancer after giving birth earlier this year and suffering continuous bleeding.

The woman’s reproductive organs were removed to prevent the spread of cancer to other organs.

Hien’s husband, Nguyen Van Trung, said his father died of liver cancer two months ago.

Tainted town

Most local officials and residents blamed the deadly diseases on environmental pollution from industrial firms in the town. However, Hai Phong Health Department did not confirm the cause in a recent report on the deaths. In 2005, the city’s Department of Science and Technology conducted research which found air pollution in Hai Phong was up to 12 times higher than the allowed level in some places.

The department also found high concentrations of arsenic, a potent poison, in the underground water.

Local residents also complain of the fumes emanating from cement companies Chinfon and Hai Phong.

Chinfon Cement Company has been emitting exhaust gases only at night following complaints but the Hai Phong Cement Company still pollutes the air day and night, a resident said.

“Most of the locals don’t have white shirts because they easily get dirty from dust in the air,” said another resident. “We can’t dry clothes outside for the same reason.”

Locals also said many other firms had caused serious pollution in the area, including Pha Rung Shipyard, Minh Duc Chemical Factory and Trang Kenh Coal Factory.

“Trang Kenh Coal Factory is supposed to be the first cause of pollution,” an official from Minh Duc Town’s People Committee, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “You can sneeze all day if you accidentally inhale fumes from the factory.

“All workers there had unhealthy-looked skin and I am afraid that they won’t survive for long,” she said.

She also named some of the ex-workers there who had cancer or who had already died.

The trucks that carried materials and products for those firms have also contributed to the town’s pollution problem.

Nga from the town’s Quyet Hung residential area said, “My baby always has a runny nose, a cough and tears because of the dusty street.”

Residents also said some of them had tried to block the street with rocks but the truck drivers removed them and continued driving.

In 2007, local authorities built a system to supply fresh water, but not all residents benefited. Many of them still use rainwater or underground well water, which could be tainted by the air and water pollution.

Reported by Luu Quang Pho