Dying to breathe: Mongolia's polluted air | Unreported World

[Music] there are two things you notice when you arrive a new LED barter and the first is the temperature this is the world's coldest capital and this morning the thermometer was showing minus 27 degrees centigrade the second is the pollution the sun's just coming up and what you think is morning fog is actually a layer of pollution blanketing the city and here one of the worst affected neighborhoods every breath I take is full of coal smoke I can smell that the air is absolutely filthy I want to find out what it's doing to the city's inhabitants and to children whose lungs are still developing [Music] dr. ourian bULOG is a senior pediatrician at this Children's Hospital [Music] she tells me in Mongolia respiratory illness is the biggest killer of children under five [Music] in the intensive care ward mangu has pneumonia and is struggling to clear his lungs he's only eight months old ona him in it [Music] [Music] balance now after dr. heaven we're testing bad things a little more salt and patrollers our snare papyrus or a support smothers it appreciate according to UNICEF cases of respiratory infections have tripled in over the last 10 years as pollution surges dr. ourian bellick says a disaster is unfolding and she's overwhelmed yagi members Hospital dominionist the cartridges at dewiness in hot period the related to the bankers indica today intelligence tournament network beverage leaders who can help our journalism can become totally gerund or Peppa draft of better was pushed Yahoo are how are introduced to do voila rare dinner has been by mung goon side for the past 10 days leaving her husband to care for her two other children I leave mangu exhausted from coughing and breathing from a tank of oxygen the next few days will be critical for him [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Hmong goons doctor suggested I join dr. Minj marks a colleague on her round of home visits we're off to visit a newborn baby who's living in a girl one of the traditional homes many of the city's poorer residents live year round in these felt tents you get the sheen derson johan van shall go to the highway doctor cetera and trust it need not get arrested deaq I put it in the past stated under an accredited investor for clearly understand this mine is 20 outside minus 20 we're in a tent and it's toasty warm all thanks to this stove but there are more than half a million of these in the capital all pumping out smoke and it's adding up to a public health disaster the coal smoke creates a smoke of floating soot particles some of these are small enough to bypass the body's defenses and cause fatal illnesses respiratory disease heart disease even cancer the most dangerous particles are called PM 2.5 the PM stands for particulate matter the 2.5 means they're less than 2.5 thousandth of a millimeter across invisible and potentially deadly it's minus 23 this morning this is when air is at the worst I can I can smell the particulate in my nose it's filthy and what's most worrying is that according to the World Health Organization the thresholds for pollution for PM 2.5 it should be 25 according to this little measurer is getting close to 900 it's an approximate reading but it shows me the scale of the problem I've come here to meet Mongoose dad this also happens to be one of the most polluted neighborhoods in the city like many people in the capital ganbara was born in the countryside and moved to the city to earn a living he says it's painful watching his children growing up in its filthy air do not only said I was interested in such single then what ought to be in pathology now I don't cook clean or what about the air quality in this area how does that affect you they started talking is better at how much they knew to be the tests teach me to be just like who remember the image kingdom desire that which is newsroom according to this that pollutions really high is hazardous adversity the recommended level of that is 25 it's more than 15 times the recommended level absolutely I don't tell you I didn't get that tapes but something about her sometimes our high courtesan teammates were something do you worry about bringing Mungo back here to my master census data on the mysterious new decision yes who did actor so how's your sister but in the hidden dirt a visitor Jan bata faces a terrible dilemma he's just started a new business making and selling noodles but staying in the city puts his children's health at risk Jan barter has to make some deliveries his route takes us through all and barters expanding suburbs driving around do you notice that some place are more polluted than others Thomas in siharan holiness had a subject and in the images I will radically different wasn't against it Jan barter said when he moved here from the countryside 20 years ago the pollution was much less but one and a half million people now live in this city half of Mongolia's entire population [Music] from a lookout point the director of the National Center for Public Health shows me the cloud of smoke poisoning the Capitol doctored saag barter advises the government on the impact of pollution air pollution is number one public health problem it is catastrophe this is probably the one of the worst polluted situation in the world ever it's just disappeared in the smog disappearance now what is that what are the health implications of what we're looking at what does that mean for those people's health there is no one organ that air pollution doesn't affect particularly cardiovascular and respiratory brain function in reproductive health are mostly affected by air pollution at the drastic level the air pollution is giving people lung cancer it's killing people it's causing stillbirth and miscarriage we have our enemy collective enemy identified now it's time for us to start changing things rapidly how are you gonna fix this problem the ultimate solution to fix air pollution is to get rid of roll call bigger question is are we going to implement that most people here can only afford the cheap raw coal that causes this pollution dr. tog bata told me there's only one definite way to breathe clean air leave the city I take his advice and head out to the countryside [Music] when I left Ulan Bator I checked the air on my pollution monitor and it was between eight and nine hundred I'm checking it now and it says one I wonder why anyone would abandon air like this for the smog of the city I soon find out [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's a pony and two carves here and they obviously weren't able to get enough pasture to keep going through the winter months the Mongolians have a word for this they call it a hood and it means when the grass doesn't grow in the summer so it can't sustain the animals in the winter and for the herders who depend on these animals for their livelihood it's a disaster [Music] [Applause] [Music] we follow a trail of carcasses so far this winter 700,000 animals have died it's the third year in a row that surd has struck climate change is making these deep freezes more common and more severe a few miles off road we come across a family of nomads the herder bat old tells me the lack of pasture has devastated his livestock his animals are starving some are so weak if they lie down for too long they die hey how many times a day to do that inside they're trying to keep the weakest animals alive what's up with the go over here there are hostages thought that torneio was no karada most of that [Music] so again please the loss of a single goat is a financial blow this winter bat bold has already lost a third of his animals he's watching his world fall apart hay is in short supply so bat-vault has taken out a loan to pay for feed this means if he loses more livestock he'll go bankrupt so you really need all your animals to stay alive now it's about injustice [Music] mr. fat balls typical of the herders who are struggling to make it through these difficult winters and it's situations like this where the livestock is dying that's making so many decide to give up a relocate to the capital but old leaves to round up some animals that have wandered off in search of food like his livestock he's entirely at the mercy of the elements and every time someone like him is driven off the land another coal fire is lit in the capital [Music] what's happening in the countryside is causing 40,000 people to move to the city each year in these rapidly expanding neighborhoods there's no running water and there's only limited access to electricity and central heating for now coal is the only option the air today is absolutely terrible well this has reached the limit of what it can measure 999 is as high as it goes and an app I thought has declared the pollution today an air pockets I'm anxious to find out how baby moon geun is doing I've already know how are you nice to see you again how's Monica doing minutes they wanted to just meet her knowledge is achieved I thought it was that easy I remember when I learned that she thought that he meant [Music] many mothers here have had a similar experience scientists researching air pollution in new land barter have found it harms children in the womb causing premature birth low birth weight and miscarriages in the heavily polluted winter months five times as many unborn babies die [Music] nowhere in the city is safe from the deadly air the indoor air pollution in my hotel is really bad sometimes it's terribly bad right now is four times the safe level so I'm going to try and reduce it using this homemade air purifier it's just an air filter attached to a cheap but powerful fan I'm going to plug it in give it an hour and see if I can reduce this number to something more acceptable okay and it has Avicii it's actually going down already look at that just over an hour later and it's brought the pollution levels in this room down to 15 which is well under the w-h-o guidelines [Music] the moment I open this window and letting the pollution from the outside whoa oh my goodness [Music] it's 15 times the recommended level [Music] I decide to give a filter to ganbara Hmong goons dad because sixty pounds a week's wages here the PM reading in Hmong goons room is 56 - hi it's a HEPA filter I've got one in my hotel room and it does reduce the indoor air pollution okay it's nets on 53 54 55 and we will take it does take time to circulate all the air in the room but let's give it a chance [Music] an hour later we returned the levels have gone up yeah this hasn't worked out as I hoped I we left it for an hour and I'm telling you this works in my hotel room but here it doesn't seem to be able to read reduce the PM 2.5 your total in the person engine this a rocking start and it was naive to think an air purifier could fix this yep well they say this is the problem out here their air quality is terrible it's saying something like 10 times the level of PM 2.5 so having an air filter up there is like King Canute trying to hold back the waves [Music] [Music] if the Lunar New Year a national holiday Mongolians make offerings of milk to mark the start of spring it's so cold the liquid freezes mid air pollution levels are high [Music] that morning ganbare tur cause moon geun has been discharged from hospital the doctors need his bed for another child with breathing difficulties in sitter young mr. Hewitt artists are closer to their ability to achieve a [Music] can bata is dropping everything to get below red in air and moon geun to a room in a hostile outside the city [Music] [Music] travel safely in Windows forest our internal Pitney he fester into a liquid or so but I think our changing [Music] Jan barter has to be back in a few days to look after his other children and his new business but they've bought long guns some breathing space however soon they'll have to bring him home again back into the toxic air [Music] as they escape they pass a goods train carrying a cargo of cheap coal destined for the heart of the city [Music] thanks for watching this on reports of world episode click the logo to subscribe for more award-winning documentaries from the unreported world team we upload videos every Wednesday and Sunday keeping you up to date with content from all over the world [Music]

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 1,231,295

Keywords: mongolia air pollution, mongolian family, the world's worst air, mongolia's polluted airnew season unreported world, new series unreported world, series 35, unreported world, channel 4 unreported world, channel 4, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Central Asia, air pollution, climate change, global warming

Id: kUNuHxrd7Y0

Length: 23min 51sec (1431 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 29 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/brinkcitykilla]

Wow this was very eye opening, and incredibly depressing

[u/PM_ME_VAPORWAVE]

Incredible documentary. This his home particularly hard as I have moderately bad asthma, and have been hospitalised for pneumonia, when I was younger. I grew up on a large city for a short while but I can't imagine how bad my asthma would have got if I grew up in Mongolia.

[u/oj88]

Horrible, assume many has seen this great and famous presentation:

https://youtu.be/T6X2uwlQGQM