Vietnam Ranked 4th in Western Pacific in Pollution-linked Deaths: Report

Vietnam is ranked fourth in the Western Pacific region in the number of pollution-linked deaths, the local newswire VnExpress reported, citing the Pollution and Health Metrics Report by the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. The report said that an estimated 71,365 Vietnamese people lost their lives to pollution in 2017, the latest year for which data was available. Air pollution caused the most deaths in Vietnam in the year with 50,232, followed by water pollution with 3,097, occupational pollution with 9,809, and lead pollution with 8,227. Vietnam is also ranked 10th in the list of 20 countries in the Western Pacific region with the highest rate of pollution-related deaths per 100,000 people, with 75 deaths. The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution is the first international alliance of its kind to respond to the threat of toxic pollution on a worldwide scale. In the Western Pacific region, China topped the list of total pollution deaths with 1.8 million, followed by the Philippines (86,650) and Japan (82,046). (VnExpressEnglish, e.vnexpress.net)