A survey on air pollution across Vietnam has been finished under a project to develop a national framework plan on air pollution control, the Voice of Vietnam Radio said Mar 18. The project’s results were released at a recent conference held by the General Department for Environment’s Pollution Control Department and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Hanoi. The project, which was carried out since Aug 2009, focused on measuring exhaust fumes discharged from small- and large-sized plants and vehicles like cars and motorbikes nationwide. The survey showed that 667,000 tons of Sulphur oxides (SOx), 618,000 tons of Nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 6,820,000 tons of Carbon Monoxide (CO) are averagely produced in Vietnam per year. The air quality in the country’s big cities, several industrial parks and craft villages is on the trend of decline, the Pollution Control Department said, blaming the rising numbers of motor vehicles and low-quality fuel to soaring amounts of exhaust fumes. The department has compiled a guide book on regulations on the pollution index, and built a model to measure air pollution with the aim to improve the country’s capacity in air pollution control. Vietnam reports 626 deaths and 1,500 cases of respiratory diseases yearly supposed to relate to air pollution, the National Institute for Environmental and Occupational Health said. (vovnews.vn Mar 18)
