Hanoians lost thousands of billions of VND incurred by air pollution

Nga Vu - Jul 26, 2017 | 03:07 PM GMT+7

TheLEADERHa Noi was becoming one of the top cities with air pollution in the country as the concentration of dust reached two - three times higher than the allowable limit on many roads.

Hanoians lost thousands of billions of VND incurred by air pollution
Air pollution in Ha Noi. Photo: Internet

This worrying fact was raised in the national environmental report of 2016 year- "Urban Environment" which has just been announced by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

According to the statistics, up to 70 per cent of the air pollution in Hanoi was caused by traffic activities. With over four million of vehicles, traffic activities accounted for 85 per cent of CO2 emissions and 95 per cent of volatile organic compounds that were not visible to the naked eyes.

Furthermore, construction activities, industrial production facilities and waste treatment,… also generated emissions, causing air pollution in Hanoi.

Data from the report also showed that air pollution-related diseases tended to increase, such as asthma, respiratory tract infection, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. Air pollution had caused many diseases, resulting in a number of economic losses due to costs of medical treatment.

According to the report, particularly in Hanoi, the cost of respiratory medical check and treatment and economic losses due to sick leave amounted to VND1,500 (roughly US$0.07) per person per day. With 3.5 million of urban residents in Hanoi, the total of economic losses caused by respiratory diseases were about VND2,000 billion (roughly US$90 million) per year.

Based on Economists’ calculation estimation if Vietnam's GDP doubles in the next 10 years without any effective environmental protection measures, environmental pollution will be triple.