DTiNews visited the scene of brick kilns in a suburban commune of Hanoi where three deaths were reported on November 15.
Smoke released all day and night
Smoke poisoning causes three deaths
Smoke poisoning from a brick kiln has been attributed to the deaths and left two others in a coma in Lai Son Village, Bac Son Commune, Soc Son District.
On the morning of November 15, Nguyen Thi Sen in Lai Son Village went to Nguyen Van Ty’s house to buy duck eggs. When she came there, she called but got no reply. She found Mr. Ty, 56 years old, dead on the floor. After that, Sen detected his wife Vu Thi Mui (53), brother-in-law Vu Van Binh (41) and son Nguyen Van Hop (24) lay motionless. She also saw Mr. Ty’s son-in-law Nguyen Van Chung reeling in the garden.
Despite quickly taking them to the commune heath station, three among those, comprising of Mr Ty, Binh and Hop died. The other two have regained consciousness. The smoke killed four dogs and more than 20 chickens and ducks in Mr. Ty’s house.
According to police, the smoke from the kiln located adjacent to Mr. Ty’s house is the cause of death. Mr. Ty’s family has produced bricks for half of a year and this is their second kiln.
Tragic scene at ‘brick farm’
At Lai Son Village, it is a seriously-devastated scenery with excavators working at full capacity to take soil from the dyke for brick production. Many sections of river bank are dug up and the smoke from brick kilns turns rows of bamboo yellow.
Brick kilns are close together, releasing poisonous smoke which is threatening local people’s health.
Going deeper into the “brick kiln farm”, you will see a busy atmosphere where workers are controlling excavators to dig soil. This has created huge holes beside brick kilns on the ground. This area used to be a fertile field.
From the top of a hill, you can see an area of tens of square kilometres wide which is now covered with a colour of soil and bricks. A large number of kilns are destroying the village’s natural resources.
Lai Son Village has some 500 households. Two hundred among them have brick kilns, with two kilns each, excluding those set up by people from other places.
Truong Thi Bon, a villager, said “The atmosphere has become stuffy since people started producing bricks.” She added that the kilns are built much closer to households. The smoke is a constant nuiscance for families which live near the field.
“Whenever people light fire for the kilns, I have to close the door and keep my children inside. We even have to shelter at relatives houses in the middle of the village on windy days,” Bon shared.
The woman also complained that she could not grow fruit trees in her garden due to the smoke.
Mrs Nguyen Thi Bien moaned “The smoke is very toxic. My children were taken to hospitals several times for cough which was said to be due to the kiln smoke. If the situation is not improved, all local people will catch illness.”
All of the brick kilns here are manual and use coal and wood as their fuel.
A blind eye towards brick kiln regulations
Under the prime minister’s Decision No. 115/2001/QD-TTg, by 2010, all manual brick kilns will have to be closed. However, over recent years, the movement of brick kiln construction has become popular in Lai Son. A kiln owner said, “In my village, all households which have fields build brick kilns. We cannot ensure our daily life if only depending on fields.”
According to some news sources, a household has to pay a fine of VND1.5 million (USD75) for the commune’s concerned agencies to build a brick kiln. The production can be only stopped in case the agencies ban it.
Locals said the commune will support 360 square metres of field VND200,000 (USD10) per crop. This money is collected from kiln owners.
For many years, the authority of Bac Son Commune has still allowed operations of brick kilns which are threatening local people’s health and even caused three deaths recently.
The scene of the smoke poisoning case on November 15
Four dogs and more than 20 chickens and ducks died of the smoke
The coal-fuelled kiln is releasing smoke
A manual brick production farm
Spillway seriously damaged
The brick kilns are a health risk