Vietnam Agency Releases Water Test Results in 10 Villages with High Cancer Rate

Vietnam Health Environment Management Agency under the Ministry of Health on December 21 released the laboratory results of water suspected of heavy pollution and cancer-causing in 10 villages in 9 provinces across the country. Accordingly, the rate of people diagnosed with cancer in these villages are at 73-169/100,000 people, lower than that of the nationwide rate, which are 135/100,000 people for female and 181.3/100,000 people for male and the global rate of 182/100,000. Common cancer diagnosed in these villages are liver cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, tongue cancer, cervical cancer, leukemia, and bone cancer. However, the agency examined the water in the villages based on 24-25 categories and found all of them to be safe or under the allowed content. Only some contents are higher than the allowed amount but not enough to cause cancer, the agency noted. The agency concluded that the survey showed nothing abnormal about water quality in these villages that can lead to high cancer. Healthy agency slammed the survey on water quality conducted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment earlier, saying their methodology was wrong since they examined wrong sources of water. (Toquoc.vn Dec 21, Phap Luat TPHCM Dec 21, Dan Tri Dec 21, VTV Dec 21)