Pham Ngoc Dang, vice chairman of Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment has raised concerns about indoor air quality after dozens of people recently fainted at Big C Supermarket in Hanoi's Nam Tu Liem District.
A staff at Big C Supermarket in Hanoi's Nam Tu Liem District fainted while working in the supermarket on March 14.
Dang said the ventilation system in many buildings in Vietnam have not been carefully designed to fit with the weather. Meanwhile, Vietnam does not have guidelines for indoor air quality.
"Some indoor air pollutions are caused by inappropriate construction designs. These designs allow carbon monoxide or mono-nitrogen oxides travel across the building," he said.
"We only have guidelines on noise pollution. Air pollution is only mentioned at factories or other manufacturing environments. Building owners and managers do not aware about this problem."
Dang suggested the government to issue guidelines for everyone, especially the architects and construction workers.
On March 14, many people arrived at The Garden Building to attend a concert of South Korean singer Kang Tae Oh. Even though the underground parking lot was packed, a large number of drivers still turned the engines on. On this day, the ventilation system of the building encountered problem so the gas and fume in the parking lot had no where to go but up to the supermarket, which is also underground.
Customers and supermarket employees experienced dizziness, nausea and could not breathe properly. Dozens of people fainted and were transferred to hospitals.
A representative of Big C Supermarket said affected people have been released with stable conditions after receiving treatment at hospitals.
A National Environment Report on air pollution issued in 2014 showed that the air in Vietnam is being seriously polluted. In 2013, Vietnam had 258 days of bad air quality and one day with harmful air.
The World Health Organisation also raised a warning bell over indoor air pollution years ago. In 2012, 7 million premature deaths was linked to air pollution exposure, in which 3.3 million deaths linked to indoor air pollution.
