Hi everyone! In today’s second post of the week, I will be going through the health effects faced by the people in Mongolia. Even though air pollution does not discriminately choose which people to cause harm to, children suffer the most from it in Mongolia.
Coal is essential if Mongols wish to survive the winter months. The air in Mongolia is so bad, that this image below is what a good day in Mongolia looks like:
![](https://blog.nus.edu.sg/sulliedsouth/files/2022/01/Mongolia-3-300x238.png)
Many have argued that informal settlers are not entirely to blame for air pollution because a lot of coal is also used in the mining industries in Mongolia. As such, corrupt politicians are ignoring or shifting the blame to innocent citizens who wish to survive. They only serve the agencies and corporations that finance them, rather than the people they are meant to serve.
As a result, children and young women of child bearing ages experience shorter lifespans, as brief in the article by Warburton et al. (2013). The study by Enkhmaa et al. (2014) also shows the correlation between winter air pollution and spontaneous abortion. Many women face pregnancy losses due to the air pollutants that they breathe in. Cousins (2019) wrote in her article that the government is aware on these side-effects, and have implemented a scheme to move locals living in informal settlements into formal apartments, or communal spaces that are connected to the communal living grid. There was also a prohibition of the waste burning in 2016. But are these really effective? Many of those who live in informal settlements are poor, and they cannot afford to move out and sustain a livelihood in the centre of the city. She also adds that coal has to be used during the winter months because other fuels such as wood and dung are not effective in keeping locals warm in a season where temperatures can reach to -40 degrees Celsius. There is no affordable alternative fuel that is clean in Mongolia. The current reality is very bleak.
A paper by Lv et al. (2020) uses an interesting pollution damage method, and establishes a useful index system to measure the external costs caused by pollution in the country. It is slightly complicated, but they generally conclude that air pollution can induce water and solid waste pollution, through the destruction of forest and aquatic ecosystems, as well as farmland. It sounds strange, but to better understand this, you can refer to pages 1136 to 1139.
Finally, the paper I found done by Luvsan et al. (2012) studies the role of SO2 in air pollution in Mongolia. They basically concluded that because of industrialization and urbanization, more of the poor are forced to move out to informal settlements, hence, contributing to indoor air pollution caused by indoor coal heating. The SO2 emitted from a range of sources also worsens air quality due to the unique meteorological parameters of the region, such as wind direction and speed, relative humidity and especially temperature.
To sum up all that I have covered in this post and the one before this, you can look into these infographics below:
![](https://blog.nus.edu.sg/sulliedsouth/files/2022/01/Mongolia-5-300x134.png)
Up next, Pakistan. See you in the next one! ✿
References
Cousins, S. (2019). Air Pollution in Mongolia. Bulletin World Health Organization. 97(2), 79-80. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6357570/?tool=pmcentrez&report=abstract [Accessed: 11 March 2022].
Enkhmaa, D., Warburton, N., Javzandulam, B., Uyanga, J., Khishigsuren, Y., Lodoysamba, S., Enkhtur, S. & Warburton, D. (2014) Seasonal Ambient Air Pollution Correlates Strongly With Spontaneous Abortion in Mongolia. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 14(146), 1-7. Available from: https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2393-14-146 [Accessed: 11 March 2022].
Gardiner, B. (2019) Kids Suffer Most in One of Earth’s Most Polluted Cities. 27 March. National Geographic. Available from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/mongolia-air-pollution [Accessed: 7 March 2022].
Luvsan, M. E., Shie, R. H., Purevdorj, T., Badarch, L., Baldorj, B. & Chan, C. C. (2012) The Influence of Emission Sources and Meteorological Conditions on SO2 Pollution in Mongolia. Atmospheric Environment. 61, 542-549. Available from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S1352231012007169?via%3Dihub [Accessed: 11 March 2022].
Lv, H. D., Zhou, J. S., Yang, L., Li, Y. M. & Liu, L. (2018) An Accounting of the External Environmental Costs of Coal in Inner Mongolia using the Pollution Damage Method. Environment, Development, and Sustainability. 22, 1299-1321. Available from: https://link-springer-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/content/pdf/10.1007/s10668-018-0249-1.pdf [Accessed: 11 March 2022].
Warbuton, D., Gilliland, F. & Dashdendev, B. (2013) Environmental Pollution in Mongolia: Effects Across the Lifespan. Environmental Research. 124, 65-66. Available from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0013935113000716?via%3Dihub [Accessed: 11 March 2022].