A recent Harvard analysis led by Professor Francesca Dominici along with Doctoral student Xiao Wu and Assistant Professor Rachel Nethery is the first nationwide study to show a statistical link between COVID-19 deaths and other diseases associated with long-term exposure to fine particulate matter. The paper has been submitted for peer review and publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Tiếp tục đọc “Linking Air Pollution To Higher Coronavirus Death Rates”
Tag: Air pollution
Vietnamese people resort to portable oxygen cylinders for respite from smog

As Vietnam’s big cities have been engulfed in toxic air for months, some Vietnamese people have turned to a novel solution – buying hits of purified oxygen to escape the pollution.
According to data by AirVisual, an independent online air quality index monitor, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s two largest cities, are frequently listed among the world’s worst 20 metropolises in terms of air quality. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnamese people resort to portable oxygen cylinders for respite from smog”
WHO reveals shocking figures on air pollution deaths
UNITED NATIONS — You may want to put on a gas mask after you read the latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO) on urban air pollution. The WHO says nine out of ten people are subjected to high levels of pollutants from the air they breathe. Tiếp tục đọc “WHO reveals shocking figures on air pollution deaths”
Evidence mounts for Alzheimer’s, suicide risks among youth in polluted cities
Date: April 13, 2018
Source: The University of Montana
Summary: Researchers have published a new study that reveals increased risks for Alzheimer’s and suicide among children and young adults living in polluted megacities.

A University of Montana researcher and her collaborators have published a new study that reveals increased risks for Alzheimer’s and suicide among children and young adults living in polluted megacities.
Dr. Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas said her group studied 203 autopsies of Mexico City residents ranging in age from 11 months to 40 years. Metropolitan Mexico City is home to 24 million people exposed daily to concentrations of fine particulate matter and ozone above U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The researchers tracked two abnormal proteins that indicate development of Alzheimer’s, and they detected the early stages of the disease in babies less than a year old. Tiếp tục đọc “Evidence mounts for Alzheimer’s, suicide risks among youth in polluted cities”
Photochemical smog threatens public health in HCM City
People living in HCM City are suffering from photochemical smog, a kind of air pollution that’s harmful to human health.

Photochemical smog is caused by the interaction of solar ultraviolet radiation, engine exhaust emissions and industrial emissions.
It has become a frequent phenomenon in recent years, especially during the hot and dry summer months. Photochemical smog is widespread in large cities such as Hà Nội and HCM City, posing increasingly serious risks to public health. Tiếp tục đọc “Photochemical smog threatens public health in HCM City”
Liệu ô nhiễm không khí đang gây sạt lở đất ở Trung Quốc? – Is air pollution causing landslides in China?
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Highlights
- • Cracks caused by mining under the potential slide rock mass ruptured the aquiclude.
- • Acid rain supplied nutrients to organisms decomposing organic matrix in the shale.
- • Acid rain reduced strength of the shale layer on which the failure surface formed.
Gánh nặng bệnh tật do nhiệt điện đốt than ở Đông Nam Á – Burden of Disease from Rising Coal-Fired Power Plant Emissions in Southeast Asia
Abstract
Southeast Asia has a very high population density and is on a fast track to economic development, with most of the growth in electricity demand currently projected to be met by coal. From a detailed analysis of coal-fired power plants presently planned or under construction in Southeast Asia, we project in a business-as-usual scenario that emissions from coal in the region will triple to 2.6 Tg a–1 SO2 and 2.6 Tg a–1 NOx by 2030, with the largest increases occurring in Indonesia and Vietnam. Simulations with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model show large resulting increases in surface air pollution, up to 11 μg m–3 for annual mean fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in northern Vietnam and up to 15 ppb for seasonal maximum 1 h ozone in Indonesia. We estimate 19 880 (11 400–28 400) excess deaths per year from Southeast Asian coal emissions at present, increasing to 69 660 (40 080–126 710) by 2030. 9000 of these excess deaths in 2030 are in China. As Chinese emissions from coal decline in coming decades, transboundary pollution influence from rising coal emissions in Southeast Asia may become an increasing issue.
Pollution killing more people than war and violence, says report
DW_Pollution kills more people each year than wars, disasters and hunger, also causing huge economic damage, a study says. Almost half the total deaths occur in just two countries.
Environmental pollution is killing more people every year than smoking, hunger or natural disasters, according to a major study released in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday.
One in every six premature deaths worldwide in 2015, could be attributed to diseases caused by toxins in air or water, the study says. Tiếp tục đọc “Pollution killing more people than war and violence, says report”
Air quality getting worse as legal loopholes still exists

The air quality measured at different monitoring stations in Hanoi and HCMC has been continuously ‘unhealthy’.
At 8am on October 6, the air quality index (AQI) measured at the US Embassy area in Hanoi was 126, meaning it is ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’. Tiếp tục đọc “Air quality getting worse as legal loopholes still exists”
Hy vọng cho Hà Nội? Hệ thống xe buýt mới có thể giảm ô nhiễm…nếu có đủ người sử dụng
English: Hope for Hanoi? New bus system could cut pollution … if enough people use it
Từ toà nhà cao ốc văn phòng tại Hà Nội, anh Trần Dũng hầu như không thể nhìn thấy đường chân trời của thành phố đằng sau lớp khói bụi dày đặc. Trước khi rời công sở, anh chuyên viên trợ lý này kiểm tra phần ứng dụng AirVisual để đọc mức ô nhiễm không khí, ứng dụng cung cấp số đo chỉ số PM2.5 tại thời gian thực – PM2.5 là các hạt bụi nhỏ li ti có trong khói bụi mà có thể huỷ hoại cổ họng và phổi của con người.

Những hàng dài xe máy và ô tô là nguyên nhân chính gây ô nhiễm không khí ở Hà Nội
Chỉ số PM2.5 thường dao động từ 100 đến 200 microgram mỗi mét khối – mức độ này thường được xếp vào loại “không tốt cho sức khoẻ” mà được toàn cầu đã công nghận. Nhưng vào ngày 19/12 năm rồi, nó đạt đến “mức độ nguy hiểm” ở mức 343 microgram/m3, cao hơn cả ở Bắc Kinh.
Bị sốc khi đọc được con số này, anh Dũng đã chia sẻ ảnh chụp màn hình với bạn bè trên Facebook, anh viết: “Tôi không thể tin vào mắt mình. Các bạn bảo trọng!” Tiếp tục đọc “Hy vọng cho Hà Nội? Hệ thống xe buýt mới có thể giảm ô nhiễm…nếu có đủ người sử dụng”
Hope for Hanoi? New bus system could cut pollution … if enough people use it
A new $53m BRT (bus rapid transit) system has the power to reduce Hanoi’s dreadful air pollution. Persuading residents of Vietnam’s rapidly expanding capital to ditch their motorbikes and private cars, however, will be another story

From his high-rise office building in Hanoi, Tran Dung can barely see his city’s skyline behind the thick layer of smog. Before leaving work, the 25-year-old executive assistant checks the pollution reading on his AirVisual app, which provides real-time measurements of PM2.5 – the tiny particles found in smog that can damage your throat and lungs.
Hanoi’s PM2.5 levels typically range from 100 to 200 micrograms per cubic metre – regularly within the globally acknowledged “unhealthy” category. But on 19 December last year, they hit “hazardous levels” at 343μg/m3, which was higher than Beijing. Tiếp tục đọc “Hope for Hanoi? New bus system could cut pollution … if enough people use it”
‘We had to sue’: the five lawyers taking on China’s authorities over smog
In an unprecedented legal case, a group of Chinese lawyers have charged the governments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei with failing to protect their citizens from air pollution, which is linked to a third of all deaths in the country
Who is responsible for China’s chronic and deadly air pollution? That depends on who you ask. Officials blame the weather or outdoor barbecues, activists blame steel companies and coal-fired power plants. But Yu Wensheng blames only one actor: the government.
The 50-year-old lawyer recently launched an unprecedented suit against the authorities in three regions in China, claiming they have failed in their responsibilities. For a government with the motto “Serve the People”, Yu feels the officials are serving other interests by allowing nearly half a billion people to choke on toxic smog. Tiếp tục đọc “‘We had to sue’: the five lawyers taking on China’s authorities over smog”
Energy and Air Pollution 2016 – World Energy Outlook Special Report
World Energy Outlook: Released on 27 June 2016
Full report | Acknowledgements | Table of Contents
Executive Summaries
Chinese | English | French
• Around 6.5 million premature deaths each year can be attributed to air pollution
• Energy production and use are by far the largest man-made sources of air pollutants
• Technologies to tackle air pollution are well known
Clean air is vital for good health. Yet despite growing recognition of this imperative, the problem of air pollution is far from solved in many countries, and the global health impacts risk intensifying in the decades to come.
The scale of the public health crisis caused by air pollution and the importance of the energy sector to its resolution are the reasons why the IEA is focusing on this critical topic for the first time.
Based on new data for pollutant emissions in 2015 and projections to 2040, this special report, the latest in the World Energy Outlook series, provides a global outlook for energy and air pollution as well as detailed profiles of key countries and regions: the United States, Mexico, the European Union, China, India, Southeast Asia and Africa.
In a Clean Air Scenario, the report proposes a pragmatic and attainable strategy to reconcile the world’s energy requirements with its need for cleaner air. Alongside the multiple benefits to human health, this strategy shows that resolving the world’s air pollution problem can go hand-in-hand with progress towards other environmental and development goals.
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