A student at Quan Toan Junior High in Hai Phong City was rushed to hospital with difficult breathing,

Six junior high students in the northern port city of Hai Phong were hospitalized with breathing difficulties Saturday, with authorities taking little or no action in two other similar cases more than a month ago.

They were sent to Hong Bang District General Hospital at around 9a.m. before five of them, whose conditions were critical, were transferred to city hospitals. The children also complained of dizziness and nausea.

The Hai Phong Department of Education and Training again ordered the school closed until Monday.

So far, more than 80 students and teachers from Quan Toan School have been hospitalized in three similar incidents.

About 25 students at the school were hospitalized on October 27 and 28 after they began coughing and found it difficult to breathe. Parents expressed their suspicion that their children might have been poisoned by the smoke discharged by many steel factories in the area.

“I will have my son transferred to another school because this is the third time he was poisoned by toxic gas,” Nguyen Truong Thuat, father of six-grader Nguyen Kim Thuyen, told the Vietnam News Agency.

Thuat said he brought Thuyen to Hanoi after the previous cases and the son was diagnosed with severe bronchitis for reasons yet to be identified.

Pham Thi Quynh Anh, a six-grader and a victim, said “My friends and I are really scared of the environment these days. Smoke has covered the school yard for several days recently, and my family is very worried about that.”

Vu Van Tra, deputy director of Hai Phong Department of Education and Training, said the students’ health cannot be protected if the situation continues.

But Tra also said his department cannot do anything but close the school until Monday and ask environmental authorities to step in.

Do Trung Thoai, deputy chairman of Hai Phong People’s Committee, said on Saturday that authorities will temporarily shut down steel factories in the area while experts find what caused the problem.

Vice principal Minh said the smoke smelt like plastic being burnt. “We (the students and teachers) couldn’t stand it.”

Do Van Thu, a school guard, said the air was dense with smoke from Friday night to Saturday morning. Local residents said the Japan-Vietnam Steel Factory just 300 meters away was likely the prime culprit.

On Saturday morning, after the students fell sick, officials from the city environment police, and the departments of Health and of Natural Resources and Environment collected exhaust fume samples from the surrounding factories.

Source: VNA