"This doesn't sound like much, but I live in Hanoi, Vietnam, a city that frequently ranks as one of the world's most polluted. It is an incredible place to live: culturally vibrant, wonderfully optimistic, with notoriously excellent food. But when it's "pollution season"-roughly October to March-too much time outdoors and without a mask means headaches, an itchy throat, and sore lungs, not to mention an elevated risk of everything from asthma to dementia to various cancers."
"I was mulling how incredible it is that Americans live in a wealthy, developed, incredibly prosperous nation; that we generally enjoy clean water, clean land, and clean air, and even clean air in our largest cities; that we enjoy that level of cleanliness in large part thanks to the environmental movement and the many rules and regulations environmentally conscious politicians have put into place;"
A rare low-AQI afternoon in Hanoi permitted an unmasked lakeside walk that produced feelings of happiness and invigoration. Hanoi frequently ranks among the world's most polluted cities, with a pollution season from October to March that brings headaches, itchy throats, sore lungs, and elevated risks of asthma, dementia, and cancers. Wealthy nations in general enjoy cleaner air, water, and land largely because of environmental movements and regulatory protections. The Trump-era EPA, led by climate-change deniers and hostile officials, is revoking the "endangerment finding," which would dismantle legal bases for regulating greenhouse gases and weaken public-health safeguards.
Read at Slate Magazine
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