Waste water flows into the 1,700-metre Ba Bo Canal which crosses five industrial zones in HCM City.

The report, released by the HCM City Environmental Protection Agency (HEPA) last month, showed that 89 per cent of examined air samples from six observation stations exceeded the acceptable maximum levels and were even bordering on the dangerous.

They are the latest results based on five parameters that evaluate air pollution, including dust, lead, noise, carbon oxide and nitrogen oxide.

The most serious air pollution is mainly in areas of An Suong intersection in District 12, Tan Binh Industrial Zone, and export-processing zones of Tan Thuan and Linh Trung.

Lead, benzene

The lead and benzene concentration has increased significantly this year, ranging between 0.22 and 0.38g per cubic metre, and increase by 2.2 times over last year, said the agency. The carbon oxide content in the air is also above the acceptable level.

The pollution caused by dust and noise has continued to rise, according to the agency. Dust from construction sites has also contributed greatly to worsening air pollution in the city which is home to more than 7 million people.

The leading factor in air pollution is exhaust fumes released by the increasing number of vehicles plying the city’s roads and the discharge of untreated smoke from production units.

The exhaust fumes-borne air pollution at An Suong cross-roads exceeds the acceptable maximum level by 4.8 times at 1.44g per cubic metre. The noise worsened most in the last three years, especially at An Suong cross-roads. One hundred per cent of the evidence gathered at the cross-roads exceeded the acceptable maximum level.

Under a five-year plan ending in 2010, the city has set several targets in order to reduce air pollution, including lowering the number of individual vehicles and controlling exhaust fumes released by production units.

However, the number of vehicles has continued to increase in recent years.

By the end of last year, the city had more than 4 million motorbikes and 300,000 automobiles of various kinds, according to official figures.

Nearly 60 per cent of motorbikes did not meet emission standards, the agency said. Viet Nam is among the countries which have the highest number of people dying of diseases caused by out-door air pollution, with up to 230 deaths per million people a year. There are between 16,000 and 20,000 people suffering from diseases related to out-door air pollution each year in Viet Nam.

The country has the second highest rate of people dying of in-door air pollution in the world with up to 400 deaths per million people a year.

The number of people suffering from pollution-related diseases is between 24,600 and 32,800 a year.

School-aged children living near the traffic intersections have more symptoms of diseases related to air-pollution.

Statistics from last year show the number of people, especially children, suffering from respiratory and lung diseases has increased remarkably compared to previous years. The ten-year statistics at the city’s Nhi Dong (Children’s) Hospital 1 said the number of children hospitalised for respiratory diseases, ear infections, asthma and congenital malformation has increased by large numbers each year.

“The major factor for the increased number of asthma patients is the serious environmental pollution,” said head of HCM City Respiration Association Le Thi Tuyet Lan, who added that only 1 per cent of asthma patients were successfully treated in Viet Nam.

Doctors from the city’s Pham Ngoc Thach Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital have warned that people are on high risk of getting respiratory and lung diseases as the environment is being seriously polluted.

Health experts and environmentalists are sounding the alert on the dust and carbon oxide concentration in the air, which has exceeded the acceptable maximum level.

VietNamNet/VNS