VietNamNet Bridge – The increase of motor vehicles on the roads of HCM City and the boom in construction is adversely affecting the health of the city’s residents.

Speaking at a recent seminar on air pollution, poverty and health, Nguyen Dinh Tuan, head of the HCM City Environmental Protection Department, said particulates measured at the city’s air monitoring stations all exceeded permissible levels.

Toxic substances like nitrogen dioxide, benzene and toluene were two times higher than permitted levels, Tuan said.

HCM City currently has more than 3mil motorbikes, 500,000 automobiles, and about 1mil vehicles travelling the roads.

Fumes containing carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and lead dioxide are discharged into the air from these vehicles.

Dr. Do Van Dung, of the HCM City Medical and Pharmacy University, said air pollution was causing an increase in the number of respiratory illnesses.

The number of children hospitalised with such problems, particularly bronchial disease, had increased year on year, according to the HCM City Paediatrics Hospital No 1 and No 2.

Nguyen Thanh Tai, deputy chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, said the city recognized that air pollution was affecting residents’ health.

The Asian Development Bank and the US’s Health Effects Institute have given US$800,000 for a city project to research the effects of air pollution, beginning with late 2006, Tai said.

The 30-month project, with the participation of foreign and local researchers, focuses on the interrelationship between poverty, air pollution and health.

Tai said the project would create a scientific foundation that would provide information and guidance on how to protect community health from air pollution.

The project’s main focus is on the poor, who are believed to suffer the most because of inadequate living and working conditions.

(Source: Viet Nam News)