City Noise Posing Health Threat

"Leaving Tan Son Nhat Airport, the unseasoned visitor soon learns of one of Ho Chi Minh City's most inhospitable features – its volume."

"HCMC can be a painfully loud city."

"Making your way from the airport to your hotel, your eardrums will be assailed by a polyphonic chorus of horn blasts, jackhammers, buzz saws and spluttering engines."

"Most people will be cocooned inside a taxi, but this provides slim protection from the horns and the roar."

"It's not just traffic volumes and vehicle horns creating the din."

"Construction work is increasingly harder to avoid throughout the city, and unlike in countries with strict laws about environmental noise levels, work can last long into the night and at weekends."

"Another problem comes when the city opens up its roads to heavy-goods vehicles at night, which supersize the regular vehicle noise issues."