Suffocating scene: People traversing Hanoi’s roads amid high levels of air pollution in the capital city. — AFP
CAPITAL Hanoi was blanketed by a thick haze of pollution that obscured high-rise buildings and left the city’s nearly nine million people breathing toxic air.The city topped air monitoring website IQAir’s table of the world’s most polluted cities early yesterday afternoon.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants – cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs – were classified as “very unhealthy” and hit more than 24 times the World Health Organisation’s annual guideline.
In recent years, Hanoi has frequently been listed among the world’s most polluted cities due in part to widespread construction and emissions from the huge number of motorbikes and cars that criss-cross the capital every day.Carbon emissions from coal plants to the north and agricultural burning exacerbate the problem.
“I have had to wear a mask whenever I’ve gone out over the last few days as the air quality has been so bad,” said office worker Nguyen Minh Huong.
“It’s hard to breathe. I sneeze all the time, so I have had to limit my time outside,” Huong said.Last month, dozens of flights were affected when high humidity caused thick fog to envelop Hanoi, producing a spike in air pollution and causing visibility to plummet.
Weather forecasters have issued regular warnings of thick haze, especially in the country’s mountainous northeastern areas.
The latest World Bank report on air pollution says 40% of people in Hanoi are exposed to concentrations nearly five times greater than the WHO’s guidelines.The WHO said that a number of serious health conditions are linked to air pollution, including stroke and lung cancer. — AFP
