The Air Pollution, Poverty and Health Effects in HCMC (APPH) project aimed to develop a conceptual framework on the linkages between urban air pollution, health and poverty for Asia, with Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) as a case study. The project included a

• Hospital-based study, which found a strong link between air pollution, especially ozone and NO2 and admissions for acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) in young children (<5 years) in HCMC, but did not find a link between admissions and poor children versus non-poor children.

• Household-based study that estimated personal exposures to air pollution, and survey respondents recognized the impact of air pollution on health, but non-poor give higher importance to air quality than the poor.

• Policy study to review of air pollution, health and poverty-related policies in HCMC and Vietnam.

The Health Effects Institute conducted the hospital and household studies. The CAI-Asia Center conducted the policy study and included a review of the government institutional framework and the policies relevant to air pollution, poverty and health and provided recommendations at the national and HCMC level to strengthen the:

• Institutional framework to support AQ policy-making and implementation;
• Policies themselves including the APPH cross-linkages between individual policies
• Measures to manage the sources of air pollution

Official project title: Air Pollution, Poverty and Health Effects in HCMC
(TA 4714-VIE)

Donor ADB

Partner: Health Effects Institute (HEI)

Duration: October 2007 - June 2008

CAI-Asia contact:
May Ajero, may.ajero(at)cai-asia.org