On October 1, Mr. Nguyen Van Tai, Director General of Vietnam Environment Administration, said PM2.5 fine dust concentration in Hanoi was the highest in the last 5 years.
He recommends that “people, especially children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with respiratory diseases should limit going out, participating in traffic and outdoor activities” but not mentioning. to solutions to control and handle air pollution.
“Where there is a need to go out, need a mask, eyeglasses,” Mr. Tai added.
The serious air pollution is lasting for several days in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, causing great concern and affecting people’s health.
In the past few days, people in cities have been sharing their social networks on air pollution information as measured by the IQAir AirVisual software, an independent online air quality monitoring organization.
The AQI often shows red at bad levels (“unhealthy”), even purple, very bad levels (very unhealthy). Hanoi for many days topped the organization’s worst air quality rankings, while Ho Chi Minh City also had many days in the top 10.
For example, at 8:40 am on September 30, the AQI index was 277, the PM2.5 fine dust index was 11 times higher than the national standard (25 µg / m3) and more than 25 times the group’s annual average. World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO recommends safe PM2.5 dust levels at no more than 10 µg / m3.
According to a report of MONRE, evidence from 13 automatic monitoring stations, air quality in Hanoi from 12-19 September continuously has PM2.5 dust concentrations exceeding the permitted level.
In the most polluted days, all stations measured PM2.5 averages of 24 hours in excess of prescribed standards.
However, this report says “other parameters (NO2, O3, CO, SO2) are still within the limits”.