Air quality in Tinh Hai Duong

How good is the air quality in Tinh Hai Duong?

Tinh Hải Dương is a province in Northern Vietnam in the Red River Delta and is one of the most industrialised provinces in Vietnam. The 2019 population level was in excess of 2.5 million people. It is a 1 hour’s journey by car to Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital city.

At the beginning of 2021, Tinh Hải Dương had poor quality air with a US AQI index number of 172 which classed it as “Unhealthy” according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The levels of concentrations for the pollutants were as follows: PM2.5 - 95.4 µg/m³, PM10 - 177 µg/m³, ozone (O₃) - 3.7 µg/m³, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) - 105.9 µg/m³, sulphur dioxide (SO₂) - 4.5 µg/m³ and carbon monoxide (CO) - 2128.3 µg/m³. With air quality being as poor as this, the advice would be to close doors and windows to prevent the ingress of dirty air inside the house. If it is necessary to go outside then wearing a good quality mask is advisable, but outdoor exercise should be avoided until the air quality improves.

How hazardous is the air quality in Tinh Hai Duong?

At the end of 2020, northern Vietnam saw levels of air pollution rise to levels which are classed as hazardous to health. This was based on data from several tracking stations across the region. In Tinh Bac Ninh the AQI index recorded levels between 150 and 243. Anything above 100 is considered to be unhealthy. At that time of year, Vietnam is at the start of their winter where nocturnal and early morning fog prevent pollutants from being dissipated due to temperature inversion.

Hai Duong province has 27 out of 48 establishments conducting environmental impact assessment. According to the monitoring results, in these facilities, the dust concentration is 10-25 times higher than the standard, the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are higher than that of the ambient air quality measurement results.

Is the air quality the same in all of Tinh Hai Duong?

There are over 50 industrial zones/units in Tinh Hai Duong and this is where the highest levels of pollution will occur.

In general, the air environment in the rural areas of the province is not polluted. However, the phenomenon of local pollution has appeared in some areas. The reason is that human activities, industrial production establishments in craft villages, handicrafts, animal husbandry, individual households in residential areas use chemicals, solvents, and recycle wastes. Besides, the situation of people drying and burning the straw after harvest, the situation of burning rubbish in landfills pollutes the surrounding air environment. It is very common for individual households to use charcoal or honeycomb charcoal as a source of energy in their domestic stoves. During the colder winter months, the space within the home needs to be heated which is why the quality of air is always poorer in colder months.

Does the transportation system contribute to poor air quality in Tinh Hai Duong?

Twenty years ago it took a long time to travel from Tinh Hai Duong to Hanoi. Since then the road network has been extensively increased in such a way that it is now possible to make that same journey in about 1 hour. Agricultural produce can be made ready and packaged and be offered for sale in Hanoi markets in less than 90 minutes. There are 650 kilometres of the road network that have recently been constructed or improved. This makes these roads ideal for the transportation of manufactured goods and fresh products to be quickly sent to distribution centres in Hanoi. Most of this will be done using big old heavy-duty trucks with large diesel-powered engines. These engines are not environmentally friendly and are a considerable source of PM2.5 particulates.

Where does most of the air pollution in Tinh Hai Duong come from?

Household combustion devices, motor vehicles, industrial facilities, forest fires and the burning of organic matter in rural areas are the main sources of air pollution in Tinh Hai Duong.

Straw burning in the countryside not only pollutes the air in the rural areas but also can send haze to the urban areas nearby, but there are plans to make this practice illegal from 2021.

Many of the factories in the industrial zones are relying on machinery that is very old and is not fitted with the latest technology, such as filters being fitted to the chimneys. Some could be retro-fitted but for the majority, this would prove too costly so tends to be ignored.

When companies are in business to make money many shortcuts or cost-cutting procedures are followed. Cheaper coal can be used which is often high in lignite and therefore will emit more pollutants than more expensive cleaner coal. Even gasoline and diesel can be “diluted” with cheaper hydrocarbons because of the various taxation rules on such products.

What are the results of air monitoring in Tinh Hai Duong?

Monitoring of air quality in general and dust such as PM10, in particular, has been carried out by periodic monitoring waves in different phases of the year. Monitoring results of the current environmental status of Hai Duong province, phase 1 and phase 2 of 2019, showed that the air quality in the residential area was relatively good. Only a few urban areas had the total suspended dust (TSP) and dust PM10 parameters exceeding the permitted standards but the level did not follow a pattern. The number of urban residential air environment monitoring points at the time of the second monitoring with dust parameters exceeding previous levels was higher than in phase 1. The first monitoring results in urban areas only had 1 out of 18 viewpoints. The PM10 dust parameter was 1.08 times higher than the accepted standard; TSP dust parameters and noise both met the requirements. The second monitoring results in urban areas had 5 out of 18 monitoring points with TSP dust concentrations exceeding 1.13-2. 5 times the acceptable limit and 2 out of 18 residential areas in urban area have PM10 dust parameter 1.3-1.43 times higher than permitted. Results of monitoring phase 1 and phase 2 in rural areas, all parameters met the standards.

How will the problem of poor air in Tinh Hai Duong be tackled in the future?

In the forthcoming year, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will continue to carry out periodic air quality monitoring according to the approved environmental status monitoring network in Hai Duong province with a frequency of 4 times per year. They have plans to install 5 automatic and fixed environmental monitoring stations in An Luu ward and Duy Tan commune (Kinh Mon), Sao Do ward (Chi Linh city), Co Dung commune (Kim Thanh) and Hai Duong city to monitor the air environment with 9 basic parameters, including dust parameters for PM2.5 and PM10 as well as some other microclimate parameters. The installation of an automatic and fixed environmental monitoring system will help professional agencies to promptly detect fluctuations in the air environment, especially fine dust pollution, superfine dust to promptly advise people of how to protect their health.

What are the effects on health through breathing in Tinh Hai Duong’s polluted air?

A team of researchers from a research centre in Australia observed the effects of higher carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations in laboratory rats and detected limitations in lung function development in young mice. The effects include altering the pulmonary sac or alveoli which is the vital part of the lung that is responsible for gas exchange thus leading to difficulty breathing. In addition, a higher concentration of carbon dioxide also changes the natural structure of the lung. These changes cause the lungs to not function properly.

According to scientists, humans have evolved to be able to breathe carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a concentration of 300 ppm, but the current concentration is about 400 ppm (parts per million).

Assuming the current carbon dioxide concentration doubled over the next 100 years, the team exposed the test rats to a concentration of 900 ppm at different times: during pregnancy, birth and in adolescence. The researchers were surprised to find that in rats exposed only to higher concentrations during adulthood, the lungs showed no signs of being affected. It may be because the adult mouse's lungs are mature, according to the researchers.

This work provides the first evidence that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air can affect lung development. However, more research is needed to understand the implications for the overall health of young children in the future. It was emphasized that the lungs are the first organ in the body that can be affected by carbon dioxide levels and the expression in the lungs suggests that other organs can also be affected.

As with most situations, it will depend on the existing state of health. A strong, young person is much more likely to be less affected by poor air quality than an older person with pre-existing health problems, in particular, respiratory problems. Children are at particular risk because their lungs are not yet fully developed and they tend to be a lot more active, most of the time.