A nursery school is located on a big road with large playing field. However, no child was seen on the playing field. The teachers asked the children stay inside the classrooms and then locked the doors.

“We are in the countryside. But we cannot live in the nature. We have to shut the doors and the windows very tight. The children cannot go out to play. However, though the windows are shut, dust still can penetrate the rooms through the cracks of the windows.

One would see a thin dust layer on everything in the room. The teachers here have to wipe tables, chairs, the wall and teaching aids every day. However, the things get dusty again the next day.

Most of the children at the nursery school infect respiratory diseases. Others suffer eyes diseases which cannot be treated even though the children have taken medicine.

A tea shop was found in the middle of the Tu Lac village, but there was no visitor. The shop owner, a woman, pointing to the west, where there was the smoke from a cement plant, and pointing to the east, where there were the mountains got white with the stone exploitation, said the Tu Lac has been bearing serious pollution.

“Sometimes I feel that I would die in some seconds because of the dust and smoke. They are our biggest enemies,” said Tran Van K, a worker of the Hoang Thach Cement Factory.
“The dust and smoke enter every home. They exist in every bowl of rice and every glass of water. The whole village has been engulfed in smoke and dust,” he continued.

“The industrialization does not mean discharging tons of dust to our village. We want a fresh atmosphere,” he said, adding that since the industrialization process in the rural area began, local people got poorer, because they cannot earn money from farm crops any more.
When asked about diseases, K said he and his family members still stay safe, but he is sure that the “Death” is lurking here, and no one knows when diseases would appear.

K said that three of his relatives have died of cancer recently. His uncle Tran Van Gioi died of lung cancer early last year, while paternal uncle Tran Dac Thien died late last year because of stomach cancer. The latest death was To Van Nghiep, born in 1968.

K said that nearly every family in the village has relatives dead of cancer. Meanwhile, tens of people are struggling with cancer. However, K said he dares not talk with the patients and ask after their health, because local residents would admit they suffer from the disease.

Here in Tu Lac village, cancer means death. Therefore, people do not want to say about cancer and diseases. They fear that their relatives would die sooner if other people talk about diseases.

Therefore, most of the families, which have people infected with cancers, try to close the doors all the day to avoid any communications with outsiders. 

Hoa is the only woman in the Tu Lac village, who does not put herself behind bars, though she is a cancer patient.

Several years ago, when seeing more than 10 people dieing every year because of cancer, she thought that she may suffer cancer one day. And this came true.

Hoa cannot explain why she is still alive, though she has infected with the fatal disease. However, she said she would better die than living together with diseases.

Source: VTC