Industrial Growth Creates Nagging Air Pollution in Vietnam

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Five years ago, a car bound for the Ho Chi Minh City airport from downtown might get stuck in a couple of quick jams, costing just an extra minute. Now big swathes of the Vietnamese financial center are congested, and not just during rush hour. That stationary traffic, with engines idling among canyons of high-rises, are contributing to the country’s first major air pollution problem.

The glut of cars reflects people’s rising wealth, which is the byproduct of fast economic growth fueled by a boom in export manufacturing. Cities in Vietnam including the capital Hanoi are the latest Asian cities to become smothered in smog. Mega-cities such as Bangkok, Beijing and Jakarta have been grappling with dirtier air, and for longer, mainly because of vehicular exhaust and factory emissions.

“This is something the Vietnamese government is pretty aware of and I think policy makers and anyone who’s living here can kind of see is becoming more and more of an issue as more people start pouring into the city,” said Maxfield Brown, senior associate with Dezan Shira & Associates in Ho Chi Minh City.

Crops, fires and industrialization

Vietnamese authorities initially assumed smoke wafting north from crop burning in Indonesia had caused the dirty air. They also looked into the role of low rainfall and local crop burning, business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates said in an October 2019 country briefing.

“If you go up in an airplane, it’s amazing,” said Frederick Burke, a partner with the law firm Baker McKenzie in Ho Chi Minh City. “One burning from one field pollutes a whole valley or a whole series of plains. It really has a wide-reaching effect.”

Urban burning of garbage including,  plastics,  adds to the foul air, Brown said. Burning is illegal, he said, but enforcement hasn’t caught up to the law.

A major cause is industry, the consultancy says. Over the past decade, coal consumption tripled and oil consumption rose 70%, the country briefing says. Vietnam depends on coal-fired plants for electricity, and,  because a lot of their northern locations depend on coal,  they give Hanoi “deteriorating air quality,” it says.

Vietnam’s $300 billion economy is forecast to grow up to 6.8% this year, SSI Research in Hanoi says. It expanded 7.1% in 2018, the fastest in 11 years.

Ho Chi Minh City smog

Humidity plus automotive pollution and “waste from industries” creates smog in the south, particularly from September into October, Dezan Shira says. Construction of urban residential buildings, shopping malls and office buildings further addles air in the south, it says.

On Monday, Ho Chi Minh City received a World Air Quality Project score of 149, which falls in the “moderately polluted” range. That means children, the elderly and people with certain diseases should avoid strenuous outdoor activities. At times of the day, the sky takes on a pasty white hue. Hanoi got a rating Monday of 129, also in the unhealthy category.

People living in Ho Chi Minh City point to a growing urban population of workers and students, meaning more vehicles on the road. The population stands at 9 million.

“It seems like we don’t have any regulations to limit the pollution from (buses), form cars, from motorbikes,” said Phuong Hong, a Ho Chi Minh City travel sector businessperson with a 30-minute daily motorcycle commute. “We even have some motor bikes from the 1980s, which means they are 30 years of working.”

Construction work also kicks up dust, and projects across the city have forced the removal of trees, she added. In their place are high-rises for housing and office-commercial space.

A year ago the Vietnamese company Vinfast began selling electric motorcycles, but few appear on the streets now. Ho Chi Minh City dwellers say the electric bikes cost more than gasoline-powered motorcycles and that the city lacks battery charging stations. Two-wheelers are staple transport for commuters.

Metro lines due to open in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City within the next two years should ease some pollution, Brown said. City officials are working toward a ban on motorcycles in central Ho Chi Minh City by 2030, local media say.

Dirtier elsewhere in Asia

Vietnamese city planners probably consider air pollution a problem to solve over the next decade as they watch more severe cases in other cities and learn from them, Brown said.

India, Bangladesh and China have the world’s dirtiest air, with Jakarta fast approaching Beijing levels, Asian media outlet Eco-Business reported in March. Cities in India and China dominated the world’s 50 dirtiest in 2018, according to the air quality monitoring service AirVisual. None were in Vietnam.

via Industrial Growth Creates Nagging Air Pollution in Vietnam | Voice of America – English

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Winter air pollution brings ′choking season′ to Balkans

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

With the onset of winter, many Balkan cities, such as Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb, become enveloped in a thick cloud of smog. But instead of tackling the problem, politicians are playing it down.

In recent days, the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and Bosnia-Herzegovina’s capital, Sarajevo, were ranked by website AirVisual as among the cities with the world’s worst air pollution. This should not come as a surprise. Authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia say that once winter sets in, air quality in other western Balkan cities drops as well.

But their admission is meant as reassurance; they say that there is no reason to panic and that this pollution not exceptional, but just “typical pollution for this time of year.”

And authorities in all three countries are not doing much to change this state of affairs — quite on the contrary. Activist Radomir Lazovic says that sometimes, authorities will knowingly take actions that lead to a further deterioration of the air quality. He says that, for example, “a waste incineration plant is being built in Vinca, near Belgrade, even though the European Investment Bank refused to fund the project because it fails to meet the standards Serbia has accepted as a prospective EU member state.”

Lazovic thinks that by calling the smog seasonal, authorities are trying to downplay the issue and keep citizens quiet. He says calling the pollution normal is ignoring reality. “You can’t say that pollution just happens. There is always a source of pollution and therefore a chance to reduce it,” he says, adding: “But the authorities are actually taking steps that further reduce the air quality.”

Gas vs. coal

While many Balkan cities mainly suffer from bad air quality in winter, the Bosnian cities of Zenica, Tuzla and Lukavac have a smog problem all year round, says Samir Lemes from the Eco Forum Zenica activist group. “Owners of industrial production sites have barely invested, or not at all, in technologies that reduce emissions,” he says, adding that because of the wars in the 1990s, investments were put on hold.

And, he says, postwar privatizations did not help cut back sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, either. The consequence is that in 2018, in the city of Zenica — a major metalworking center in Bosnia-Herzegovina — the concentration of harmful substances in the air exceeded the legal limit on 252 out of 365 days. By law, this limit may be exceeded only three times a year.

Sarajevo also regularly ranks among Europe’s most polluted cities. That’s because it’s located in a valley that hinders air circulation. To make matters worse, many residents still use coal to heat their homes, although the municipality installed gas connections throughout the city in the 1970s  All the same, says Lemes, the gas grid helped significantly to reduce the SO2 and soot concentration in the Sarajevo air.

Polluted air is a major health risk

But the city’s air quality soon deteriorated again when car traffic increased along with the use of solid fuels because of high gas prices, says Lemes. “These developments soon undid the progress that had been made in the 1980s with regard to air quality.” According to Lemes, the unlicensed construction of skyscrapers has further reduced air circulation in the city, and building homes without gas or central heating hasn’t helped, either. With parks becoming fewer and fewer, he says, citizens are increasingly condemned to breathe polluted air.

Nenad, a Sarajevo local, suffers from asthma. He says for those with such a chronic illness, “winter in Sarajevo is choking season.” He says the worst part is not being able to freely move about the city when there is heavy smog, even though people like him obviously need to get to work or occasionally see a doctor. He says the best solution would be to “flee to the mountains, but even that isn’t always an option.”

Boro Nogalo, the director of Zagreb’s Children’s Hospital, estimates that “in 15 years’ time, about half of all people will have developed allergies.” He says there is a strong correlation between allergies and places with serious air pollution. “Pollution damages the mucous membranes of the airways and, in connection with allergens, causes allergic inflammation,“ he says.

Time to listen to science: activists

Although Croatia joined the EU in 2013, it does not have better air than in other countries in the Balkan region. While Croatian cities along the Adriatic coast tend to have decent air quality because of their favorable location, that certainly cannot be said for cities further inland.

In the capital, Zagreb, and elsewhere, legal pollution limits are regularly exceeded. Samir Lemes says there is no simple fix to this problem. The activist says a whole bundle of measures would be needed, such as “filters and other technologies to reduce emissions from industrial centers; public transport needs to be improved and made more accessible.” He thinks it is also important “to better insulate buildings to reduce their need for heating.” And, he says, cars emitting particularly high levels of pollutants should be banned.

He also wants to see “coal gradually phased out as an energy source, because we are living in the 21st century, not the 19th.” Lemes hopes to see renewable energy sources come to replace coal-fired power plants. He says it is not so much about finding new solutions, as many other countries are already leading by example. What he wants to see now is lawmakers finally listen to scientists rather than pursuing political agendas — and for them to start tackling the smog problem at last.

via Winter air pollution brings ′choking season′ to Balkans | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 04.11.2019

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Toxic Tube air ‘is a health risk to travellers and staff’

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

PASSENGERS and staff on the London Underground risk breathing in air pollution 18 times worse than above ground, according to scientists.

They absorb toxic particles known as PM2.5 — which have a diameter of less than 2.5 millionths of a metre — through iron-based dust on brakes, wheels and rails, fragments of clothing and passengers’ dead skin cells, found the University College and King’s College London study.

The Victoria Line was worst with a peak of 885 micro grammes per cubic metre, 22 times higher than World Health Organization limits.

UCL’s Brynmor Saunders told The Sunday Times that if the health impacts are the same as surface-level pollution, ‘a person with this exposure would have a seven per cent to 11 per cent higher chance of death due to increased risks of cardiovascular diseases’.

He went on: ‘Most people don’t spend that long down there but it is potentially very worrying for train drivers or maintenance staff. The concentrations are very high even compared to somewhere like Oxford Street.’

TfL challenged the findings, saying people face ‘high concentrations’ of PM2.5 at home, especially when cooking, and from exhaust fumes above ground.

Safety chief Lilli Matson said TfL spends £60million a year cleaning and monitors ‘to ensure that particle levels are well within Health and Safety Executive guidelines’. It has also commissioned new research.

via Toxic Tube air ‘is a health risk to travellers and staff’

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Flights diverted in Delhi as toxic smog hits worst levels of 2019

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Car fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from farms have contributed to pollution crisis

Pollution in Delhi has reached its worst levels so far this year, at almost 400 times the amount deemed healthy, causing planes to be diverted away from the city.

A week on from Diwali, the thick brown smog that shrouded the city after the festival has shown no sign of shifting. On Friday a public health emergency was declared and Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the city had turned into a “gas chamber”.

By Sunday the air quality had deteriorated further, with the air quality index measuring over 900 in some areas, far exceeding the level of 25 deemed safe by the WHO, and well above even the 500 mark deemed “severe plus”.

Visibility became so bad that more than 30 flights were redirected from Delhi airport. “Pollution has reached unbearable levels,” said Kejriwal.

Sachin Mathur, 31, an auto-rickshaw driver in north-west Delhi, said he had to stay outside for work and he had been struggling to breathe and could barely keep his eyes open on the roads.

“I have been driving auto on Delhi roads for the last three years and every year this time after Diwali, Delhi becomes like this,” Mathur said. “I am suffering from a throat infection and my eyes are burning. The pollution means I do not get many passengers, so going to a doctor is not affordable.”

The air pollution crisis is now an annual tradition in Delhi at this time of year, owing to a toxic mixture of smoke from celebration firecrackers, the burning of crop stubble by farmers in the neighbouring regions of Punjab and Haryana, and a cold shift in temperatures locking in the fumes.

On Sunday the government environment monitoring agency Safar said there would no relief for at least another two days because of rain and humidity.

Schools have been closed until at least Tuesday, construction work has been ordered to stop and the government has organised for 5m masks to be handed out. From Monday the city will begin a trial run of a scheme in which cars with odd and even numbered licence plates can drive on alternate days.

Many in Delhi say far stronger measures are needed, particularly to stop the main culprit, crop burning. Satellite imaging showed more than 3,000 incidents of stubble burning in neighbouring states last week. The practice is estimated to cause 44% of Delhi’s pollution.

Rachel Rao, the vice-principal of Queen Mary’s school in Delhi, said they had limited outdoor activities for pupils. “Over the past 10 years the situation has been getting worse. We never used to see pollution like this,” said Rao. “The past few days have been absolutely awful. We have seen many of our pupils falling sick and complaining of having difficulty breathing.

“Before Diwali, we tried to spread awareness among our students about not burning firecrackers, in the hope they would bring that message back home. But the Delhi government, the Punjab government, the Haryana government and the central government should be coming up with better solutions rather than just blaming each other for the problem.”

Neeraj Sharma, 45, a businessman, said his 16-year-old son, a professional athlete, had been forced to stop his training this week because the pollution levels made it impossible to exercise.

“It is very difficult to breathe in this weather, there is a bitter taste in the air,” said Sharma. “I think the government is very superficial in their approach to pollution control. For the last five years the Delhi government did nothing, but now, as an election is approaching, they are acting as if they are concerned. The Delhi government said they banned crackers in Delhi, so how come so many of them were bursting all over Delhi during Diwali? If you ask me, nothing will change, the situation will continue to go from bad to worse.”

Hospitals in the capital reported a surge in patients coming in with respiratory issues. Dr Sai Kiran Chaudhary, the head of pulmonology at the Delhi Heart & Lung Institute hospital, said people had become much more aware about the dangers of pollution in the past two years, with masks becoming a common sight and people staying indoors.

“Everything, from increased construction, increased urbanisation, increased number of cars on the road and a reduction of green spaces, is making this problem worse every year,” said Chaudhary. “So many people are losing their lives.”

According to a UN report, 14 out of 15 of the world’s most polluted cities are in India. The long-term health implications of living with this air were laid bare in a study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago released on Thursday, which found that the life expectancy of people living in the Indian states of Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal has reduced by up to seven years due to pollution.

via Flights diverted in Delhi as toxic smog hits worst levels of 2019 | World news | The Guardian

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Schools in New Delhi shut until November 5 as air pollution severe

Posted on November 1, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Schools in the Indian capital will be shut until Nov. 5, the city government said on Friday, as residents breathed the season’s worst air for a third straight day.

As farm fires from New Delhi’s neighbouring states sent swathes of smoke into the capital, the city’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered schools to be closed, the minister said in a tweet he posted in Hindi.

Earlier on Friday, a government-appointed environment panel declared Delhi’s air pollution a public health emergency, according to report by Reuters partner ANI that quoted a letter from the Environment Pollution Control Authority.

“This is a public health emergency as air pollution is now hazardous and will have adverse health impacts on all particularly the children,” ANI quoted the letter.

Government-monitored indices that track air pollution hit 500 in several parts of the capital, the maximum recorded by the government’s Central Pollution Control Board.

The index measures the levels of PM 2.5, tiny particulate matter that goes deep into the lungs.

Levels above 400 indicate severe conditions that put people with healthy lungs as well as those with respiratory illnesses at risk.

The government will also restrict the number of private vehicles in the city from next week under an “odd-even” scheme based on the number plates.

via Schools in New Delhi shut until November 5 as air pollution severe – Reuters

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New Delhi pollution prompts call to shut schools, sporting events

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Farm fires in nearby states have sent clouds of smoke over the city, posing a health risk to its 20 million residents.

Some doctors and residents urged New Delhi authorities to shut schools and cancel outdoor sporting events in the Indian capital as air pollution remained at the most severe level for the second day running on Wednesday.

Farm fires raging in neighbouring states have sent clouds of smoke floating over the city, trapped in a toxic smog, posing a health risk to its 20 million residents, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) air warning guidance.

The CPCB air quality index has exceeded 400, classified as “severe” on the scale, which means it can seriously affect those with existing respiratory illnesses, and even those who are healthy. Pollution readings in some places had peaked at 500, the most severe level on the government index.

Delhi’s under-the-bridge school for the poor (1:58)
“It is a public health emergency,” said Desh Deepak, a chest physician at the city’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

“Today, lungs are far blacker compared to 20 years ago.”

Some citizens’ groups and doctors took to Twitter to call for schools to be temporarily closed until the air quality improved.

Former India cricket captain Bishan Singh Bedi, meanwhile, led a chorus of warnings over New Delhi hosting a limited-overs Twenty20 cricket match between India and Bangladesh on Sunday, citing “hazardous air quality”.

But match organisers at the Delhi & District Cricket Association announced the sale of tickets on Wednesday in a sign they were pressing forward.

Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said: “I hope that pollution will not come in the way of cricket.”

Some residents also called for the cancellation of a six-kilometre run planned for Thursday to mark the anniversary of the birth of former home minister Sardar Patel, revered by ruling Hindu nationalists.

“You will be putting thousands of citizens in harm’s way by making them run in this pollution,” posted Brikesh, a Twitter user.

The CPCB index measures the concentration of tiny poisonous particulate matter that can be carried deep into the lungs, causing deadly diseases including cancer and cardiac problems.

“We are in a severe situation because there are no winds,” Prashant Gargava, a top official at the CPCB told Reuters.

The city government has ordered the shutdown of construction activities and coal-based power plants. From next week, Delhi will restrict the use of private vehicles on the capital’s roads under an “odd-even” scheme based on vehicle number plates.

via New Delhi pollution prompts call to shut schools, sporting events | News | Al Jazeera

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Harmful emissions from traffic, trucks, SUVs: New Canada’s national air pollution report

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

Almost one third of Canadians live near a major road—and this means they go about their everyday lives exposed to a complex mixture of vehicle air pollutants.

A new national study led by University of Toronto Engineering researchers reveals that emissions from nearby traffic can greatly increase concentrations of key air pollutants, with highly polluting trucks making a major contribution. Canada’s cold winters can also increase emissions while particle emissions from brakes and tires are on the rise.

The report, released today, is the culmination of a two-year study monitoring traffic emissions in Toronto and Vancouver—the two Canadian cities with the highest percentage of residents living near major roads.

“There’s a whole ‘soup’ of pollutants within traffic emissions,” says Professor Greg Evans, who led the study in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, and Metro Vancouver.

Evans says that this soup of pollutants includes nitrogen oxides, ultrafine particles, black carbon, metals, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Exposure to these emissions has been associated with a wide range of health issues, including asthma, cancer and cardiovascular mortality.

“The areas of concern we identified raise important questions about the health of Canadians living near major roadways,” says Evans.

The national report’s findings complement a parallel report on air quality in the Vancouver region that will soon be released by Metro Vancouver. Both reports underscore the need to assess and enact new measures to mitigate exposure to air pollutants.

Traffic in cities

Busy roads are detracting from air quality nearby, especially during morning rush hour.

The researchers measured concentrations of ultrafine particles—the smallest airborne particles emitted by vehicles—and found that average levels of ultrafine particles near highways were four times higher than sites far removed from traffic.

“These particles are less than 100 nanometres in size, much smaller than red blood cells. They can travel and trans-locate around the body,” explains Evans. “We don’t know yet what the health impacts of these particles are but we do know that near roads, they are a good indicator of exposure to traffic pollution.”

The concentrations of most traffic pollutants varied by factors of two to five across the cities.

Large trucks

The report highlights the dangers of highly polluting diesel trucks, which represent a minority of the total trucks on roads and highways, but emit diesel exhaust at disproportionately high levels.

“If there’s a high proportion of trucks, people who spend a lot of time near these roadways—drivers, workers, residents —are being more exposed to diesel exhaust, which is a recognized human carcinogen,” says Evans.

Though there’s currently no standard for public exposure to diesel exhaust in Canada, black carbon, more commonly called soot, is used to monitor exposure in workplaces. Based on black carbon, the concentrations of diesel exhaust beside the major roads exceeded the guidelines proposed in the Netherlands for workers, implying that they are too high for the public.

“If these highly polluting  were repaired, retrofitted, removed or relocated, it would make a significant difference,” says Evans. “You can’t move your nearby schools or homes, but we can do something about these highly-polluting trucks that are a small proportion of the truck traffic, and yet causing a lot of the trouble.”

Wind and winter

Air quality is not just a concern during summer months: winter weather brings an increase in near-road concentrations of nitrogen oxides and ultrafine particles.

The researchers’ data suggest emission treatment systems on diesel vehicles become less effective under colder temperatures. “The systems appear to not be well designed for cold weather,” says Evans. “It’s concerning when you consider most of Canada faces cold temperatures and long months of winter; Toronto and Vancouver are nowhere near the coldest parts of Canada.”

Wind conditions also affect pollutant levels: the researchers found that concentrations were up to six times higher when monitoring the downwind side of a major road.

Tire and brake wear

As brake pads on cars and trucks are worn down, the materials they’re made of turn to dust—and that dust goes straight into the air.

“These non-tailpipe emissions, from brakes, tires and the road itself, are increasing and we believe that this is because our cars are getting larger and heavier,” says Cheol Jeong, Senior Research Associate in Evans’ lab, whose analysis revealed the growing issue with non-tailpipe emissions.

“People are buying more trucks and SUVs than small cars and that trend has been growing in recent years. The heavier it is, the more energy it takes to stop, and the more brake dust gets emitted,” he adds.

The report concludes with recommendations geared at all levels of government. Evans hopes the report will lead to establishing a nation-wide road-pollution research network that can advise policymakers, engage companies and the public, and lead to standards and laws that will ultimately protect the health of Canadians.

“We’d like to see this report, and future studies, help launch new monitoring stations across Canada so that all Canadians can get a better picture of the implications of our transportation choices and how these influence what we’re breathing in,” he says. “Our transportation will be changing very quickly in the coming decade and we’ll need ongoing monitoring to help us stay on a path towards increased sustainability.”

The findings of this report and its recommendations will be discussed at a national meeting in Toronto on November 4.

via Harmful emissions from traffic, trucks, SUVs: New Canada’s national air pollution report

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Prenatal air pollution exposure linked to infants’ decreased heart rate response to stress

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Respro® UK Ltd

A mother’s exposure to particulate air pollution during pregnancy is associated with reduced cardiac response to stress in six-month-old infants, according to Mount Sinai research published in Environmental Health Perspectives in October. This study is the first to find that particulate air pollution exposure in utero can affect heart rate variability, which is a known risk factor for health issues.

Variability in how the heart rate responds to stressful experiences is essential for maintaining optimal functioning of the cardiovascular, respiratory, and digestive systems and also is central to emotional well-being and resilience to stress over one’s lifetime. Decreased heart rate variability, as observed in this study, is a known risk factor for mental and physical health problems in later life. Air pollution’s negative effect on heart rate variability has previously been found to lead to medical and psychological conditions such as heart disease, asthma, allergies, and mood or behavioral disorders in studies of older children, adolescents, and adults.

Mount Sinai researchers studied 237 Boston-based mothers and their infants and used satellite data and air pollution monitors to determine the level of particulate air pollution the mothers were exposed to during pregnancy. The air pollution levels in this study were similar to levels experienced by the general U.S. population.

By studying the babies’ heart rate and respiration at age six months, researchers found that the higher the level of the mother’s exposure to air pollution in pregnancy, the less variability in the infant’s heart rate in response to a stress challenge.

“These ?ndings, in combination with increasing worldwide exposure to particulate air pollution, highlight the importance of examining early-life exposure to air pollution in relation to negative medical, developmental, and psychological outcomes,” said senior author Rosalind Wright, MD, MPH, Dean for Translational Biomedical Research, and Professor of Pediatrics, Environmental Medicine and Public Health, and Medicine (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine), at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “A critical step in identifying children at risk for costly chronic disorders is identifying exposures that lead to early vulnerability.”

“Identifying exposures that disrupt key processes such as heart rate response will lead to prevention strategies early in life when they can have the greatest impact. Specifically, these findings support individual-level and policy-level action to reduce exposure to particulate air pollution exposure during pregnancy,” said the study’s first author, Whitney Cowell, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine.

via Prenatal air pollution exposure linked to infants’ decreased heart rate response to stress | EurekAlert! Science News

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