The North is twice as polluted

The newly published global air quality map of the US Aeronautics and Aeronautics Agency shows that North Vietnam has twice as much pollution levels as allowed. Meanwhile China becomes the poorest air quality country in the world.

Map of global air pollution status 2001 - 2006. (Photo: NASA)

In many developing countries, due to the absence of a complete ground monitoring network, evaluations of air pollution indicators are often inaccurate.

Recently, NASA scientists published a global air quality map, showing us the distribution of areas with floating particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in size. This particle density is considered an important indicator of air pollution levels.

Particulate is a concept that is only used to refer to very small liquid or solid particles floating in the air. For environmental scientists, these floating particles refer to very small pollutants in the air, one of the main causes of air pollution.

According to research by scientists, particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter are particles that can be inhaled by humans when they breathe, they will build up in the lungs, causing harm to human health. Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter are particularly dangerous because they penetrate directly into the lungs.

So scientists use the PM 2.5 index to denote the standard content of particles floating in a cubic meter of air. The higher the index, the more serious the air pollution in that place.

According to this map, the current situation in the South of Vietnam is generally at a safe level. However, in the North, the PM2.5 index of Northern Vietnam is at 20-25, 2 times higher than the safety level set by the World Health Organization WHO. According to WHO, PM2.5 index less than 10 is considered a safe level.

Previously, at many environmental seminars, domestic environmental experts also affirmed that the air in most cities in the country is seriously polluted by factory and vehicle emissions. the. To date, what shows on NASA's map once again alarms the level of air pollution in Vietnam.

Cities are the poorest air quality places in Vietnam. (Photo: Internet).

In this map of global air pollution in the period 2001 - 2006, the areas with the highest PM 2.5 were North Africa and China. In particular, China is one of the countries with an alarming level of air pollution. Many areas in East and Northeast China, the PM2.5 index is up to 80, higher than the Sahara desert.

So far, there has been no accurate assessment of the origin of these floating particles. Some argue that it is human, some say it's natural.

Environmental experts say that in Arab and Sahara regions, floating particles can be made up of natural mineral dust. In China and North India, it is likely that the emissions of factories and vehicles here are the origin of this floating seed.