Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have serious air pollution.
According to data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, air pollution in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is on the rise. At times, the air quality index (AQI threshold) has reached a bad level, affecting human health and socio-economic development activities.
Hanoi is regularly listed among the world's most polluted cities, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) at red alert levels for many days. In 2024, Hanoi recorded four periods of severe air pollution, three from January to April and one in early October. Pollution peaked from October to March of the following year.
The five main sources of air pollution in Hanoi are identified as road transport (including road dust), industry, residential areas, biomass burning and agriculture.The largest source of emissions is traffic.Monitoring results from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment show that air pollution in Hanoi is often heaviest between 6-8am and 5-7pm, right at the time of going to work and rush hour.
Although Ho Chi Minh City's air pollution is not as serious as Hanoi's, it also faces pollution caused by traffic and industry.
Mr. Le Hoai Nam, Deputy Director of the Department of Environmental Pollution Control (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), said that monitoring results from 2019 to present show that most of the air quality in large cities is polluted, especially in large cities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, Hai Duong... In air pollution issues, the most important is dust. Monitoring results from 2022-2023 show that the average annual PM 2.5 fine dust in Hanoi, Bac Ninh, and Thai Nguyen all exceed the standard. In Hanoi alone, PM 2.5 dust fluctuates between 26-52μg/Nm3, exceeding the limit by 1.1-2.1 times.
Pollution affects health a lot.
There have been links between air pollution and people's health. Specifically, with the increase in PM 2.5 dust concentration, there are on average nearly 1,100 hospitalizations due to cardiovascular disease and nearly 3,000 cases due to respiratory disease each year.
“If the fine dust content of PM 10 and PM 2.5 increases to 10μg/m3, the number of hospitalizations related to respiratory diseases of children in Hanoi will increase by 1.4% and 2.2% respectively. During the period 2011-2015, air pollution reduced the income of inner-city residents by about 20%,” said Mr. Nguyen Minh Tan, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Giap, Deputy Director in charge of professional affairs at Bach Mai Hospital and General Secretary of the Vietnam Respiratory Society, has repeatedly warned about the serious impact of air pollution on the health of Vietnamese people. He emphasized that air pollution affects the health of people in general, especially those who are susceptible such as the elderly, pregnant women, children and people with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Giap, ultra-fine dust particles (PM2.5) can penetrate deep into the lungs, travel through the bloodstream to organs in the body, causing inflammatory reactions and possibly causing diseases in many different organs. He also cited data from the World Health Organization (WHO), stating that about 30% of deaths from lung cancer, 25% from stroke and cardiovascular diseases, along with 43% of deaths from respiratory diseases are related to air pollution.
Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Giap added that when the air quality is poor and there is a lot of dust in the environment, the first and most obvious people affected are patients with existing respiratory diseases. Patients will have more difficulty breathing, cough more, accompanied by chest tightness and signs of an acute attack will appear. Studies show that in times of extreme weather or high air pollution, the frequency of hospitalizations due to respiratory and cardiovascular causes increases. The Ministry of Health has implemented a number of solutions such as developing "Recommendations for preventing and combating the effects of air pollution on public health" according to the AQI air quality index levels for normal people and sensitive people...
To protect health, Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Van Giap recommends that people, especially children, pregnant women, people with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and the elderly, should limit exposure to sources of pollution emissions such as vehicles, construction sites and areas cooking with coal and firewood. During times of air pollution, if symptoms such as fever, rhinopharyngitis, bronchial pneumonia, blood pressure, cardiovascular disease appear, it is necessary to go to medical facilities immediately for examination and treatment advice.
To strengthen the control of air pollution in large cities, inter-sectoral, inter-regional and inter-provincial coordination is needed to address this situation. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is urgently developing and submitting to the Prime Minister for consideration and promulgation the "Inter-sectoral, inter-regional and inter-provincial coordination mechanism in the control and reduction of air pollution" for implementation. In the long term, Vietnam needs a project to transform the green transport system and develop public transport with the earliest implementation roadmap.
