Mountainous people get knowledge of environment, health

HÀ NỘI — Nearly 30,000 local officials and citizens from three districts of the northern province of Bắc Kạn received training on healthcare skills and environment protection through a project sponsored by the Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA).

The trainees in ten classes have been taught general knowledge on safe and unsafe building materials, especially asbestos (a soft, greyish-white material used mainly in buildings and clothing as a protection against fire and as a form of insulation), diseases resulting from using asbestos and when asbestos causes danger.

Hoàng Thị Ngân, Deputy chairperson of Bắc Kạn Province’s Women’s Union, said due to backward customs and limited awareness, locals still use building materials that are not friendly to the environment.

“They also farm in a way that harms the surrounding environment,” she said.

The localities have so far hosted ten training classes on the matter.

Locals have been using asbestos to tile their houses, toilets, and barns without knowing that the material may harm the environment when being dismantled.

According to statistics by the World Health Organisation, each year over 100,000 people die due to diseases caused by asbestos while 1.5 million people are living with such diseases.

Locals are happy living under a new tiled house.

Each kilogram of asbestos per head may cause 2.4 times more likelihood for people to get cancer.

Nguyễn Văn Sơn, Deputy Director of the Professional Health and Environment Institute under the Ministry of Health, said asbestos is a top cancer cause.

Việt Nam is among the top seven countries in the world using imported asbestos. In 2020, the country imported some 20,000 tonnes of asbestos. VNS