BackgroundVietnam is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. The country suffers from many kinds of natural disasters, of which the most common and serious one is flooding. Long and heavy rainfall during the last days of October and the first week of November 2008 resulted in a devastating flood unseen for over three decades in the capital city of Hanoi. It caused a substantial health impact on residents in and around the city and compromised the capacity of local health services.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to ascertain the vulnerability and health impacts of the devastating flood in Hanoi by identifying the differences in mortality, injuries, and morbidity patterns (dengue, pink eye, dermatitis, psychological problems, and hypertension) between flood affected and non-affected households.DesignA cross-sectional study was carried out involving 871 households in four selected communes (two heavily flood affected and two comparatively less affected) from two severely flooded districts of Hanoi. Participants were interviewed and information collected on the social, economic, and health impacts of the devastation within 1 month after the flood.ResultsThe self-reported number of deaths and injuries reported in this study within 1 month after the heavy rainfall were a bit higher in severely affected communes as compared to that of the less affected communes of our study. The findings showed higher incidences of dengue fever, pink eye, dermatitis, and psychological problems in communes severely affected by flood as compared to that of the controlled communes.ConclusionsFor people in flood prone areas (at risk for flooding), flood prevention and mitigation strategies need to be seriously thought through and acted upon, as these people are exposed to greater health problems such as psychological issues and communicable diseases such as pink eye or dermatitis.

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Vu 6 , t. t. pham 7 , thi nu nguyen 8 , n. V. Quang 9 & X. c. nguyen 10,11* this study presents the removal of phosphate from aqueous solution using a new silver nanoparticlesloaded tea activated carbon (Agnps-tAc) material. in order to reduce costs, the tea activated carbon was produced from tea residue. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of impregnation ratio of Agnps and tAc, pH solution, contact time, initial phosphate concentration and dose of Agnps-Ac on removing phosphate from aqueous solution. Results show that the best conditions for phosphate adsorption occurred at the impregnation ratio AgNPs/TAC of 3% w/w, pH 3, and contact time lasting 150 min. The maximum adsorption capacity of phosphate on AgNPs-TAC determined by the Langmuir model was 13.62 mg/g at an initial phosphate concentration of 30 mg/L. The adsorption isotherm of phosphate on AgNPs-TAC fits well with both the Langmuir and Sips models. The adsorption kinetics data were also described well by the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-secondorder models with high correlation coefficients of 0.978 and 0.966, respectively. The adsorption process was controlled by chemisorption through complexes and ligand exchange mechanisms. this study suggests that Agnps-tAc is a promising, low cost adsorbent for phosphate removal from aqueous solution.

Magnetic modified-corncob biochar with an impregnation ratio of iron at 20% (w/w) was used for removal of Cr(vi) from aqueous solution.

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