Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, topped a list of the most polluted major cities in the world on Friday as thick smog covered the city, obscuring buildings and strangling nine million citizens with hazardous air.
Although commuters told AFP they were having difficulty breathing through the foul pollution, which is now a common occurrence in the city throughout the winter, authorities advised people to wear masks and limit their time outside.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants that cause cancer and are small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs reached 227 micrograms per cubic meter, which is 15 times the limit daily average exposure advised by the World Health Organization, according to IQAir.
In the morning, Hanoi was at the top of the Swiss monitoring company’s list of the most polluted large cities in the world, but it quickly dropped back down.
In 2023, IQAir ranked the city as one of the top 10 most polluted capitals in the world.
Despite the higher expense, office worker Tran Quynh Lan told AFP that she had to switch to buses and taxis because she was having trouble breathing through the toxic cloud when riding a motorcycle.
“The air quality has been so extremely bad that I really don’t feel I can breathe easily in the open air. I have to wear masks all the time,” she said.
According to the WHO, exposure to air pollution is connected to a range of significant health disorders, including as lung cancer, heart disease, and strokes.
According to experts, Hanoi’s pollution is caused by both the massive amount of building and the emissions from the many automobiles and motorcycles that go through the city every day.
Carbon emissions from coal plants to the north and agricultural burning exacerbate the problem.
“The source of pollution emissions changes little every day,” said climate expert Huy Nguyen.
Huy told AFP that “pollutants seem to be locked in a giant atmospheric glass cage that they cannot escape and they accumulate day after day” as a result of the unfavorable weather conditions that are now in place.
People in Hanoi should “wait for a strong northeast monsoon with rain and strong convection” in order to ameliorate the pollution problem, he said.
The city usually doesn’t get rain until March.
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