Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
There are over 5000 brick kilns in Bangladesh. Every year 15 billion bricks are made valued at US $640 million. Bricks make up 1% of the GDP of Bangladesh. Brick manufacturing creates many jobs in Bangladesh and is a big part of the economy. The Brick industry in Bangladesh employs over 1 million people. They make 23 billion bricks each year at 7,000 kilns.
Demand for bricks is on the rise, following the growth of the construction industry amid an infrastructure boom. There are over 1000 brick kilns around the capital of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Bricks are sold whole, but they are also broken up for the production of concrete.
1000's of chimneys contribute heavily to some of the worst air pollution in the world. The brick kilns create 60 % of the particulate pollution in Dhaka.
Many of these kilns use inefficient technology with no pollution controls.
An untold number of haphazardly regulated brickmakers create clouds of smoke and dust. The World Health Organization ranks Dhaka among the top cities with the highest annual concentrations of fine particle pollution.
While traffic and burning trash contribute to air pollution in Bangladesh, it is hard to miss the impact of the brick kilns as well.
Workers travel from around the country to Dhaka’s brickmaking factories.
Workers bring their families with them to work. The families of the workers live at camps close to the factories.
According to the 2018 “State of Global Air” report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle and the research nonprofit Health Effects Institute in Boston, across the world ambient particulate matter is the 6th leading risk factor for premature death. Those risks are high in Dhaka, where fine particle pollution like PM2.5 is inhaled by residents.
Dhaka's daily PM2.5 levels soar above 200 micrograms per cubic meter in the winter. This is 8 times the level the World Health Organization considers safe. Exposure to PM2.5 has been connected to lung cancer and other health problems. One study states that it claimed 14,000 lives in Dhaka in 2014. Researchers estimated that it caused the deaths of more than 100,000 Bangladeshis.
The Bangladeshi government operates 11 continuous air monitoring stations throughout the country. 3 stations are in Dhaka, 2 in Chittagong, and 1 in each of the country’s other 6 divisions. The Department of Environment monitors and reports findings every day for 6 common pollutants, including: nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, PM2.5, PM10 and ozone.
Half of Dhaka’s hourly readings were at or above unhealthy levels according to the air quality data from 2017. Brick kilns contribute significantly to PM2.5 concentrations in the cities that they are close to. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that the daily concentration of PM2.5 is unhealthy for anyone at levels above 55.4 micrometers per cubic meter of air. Readings far above this are common. According to the State of Global Air report, since 1990, the annual PM2.5 levels in Bangladesh have increased from around 65 micrometers per cubic meter in 1990 to 101 in 2016.
#bricks #factory #bangladesh #bangla #dhaka #brick #kiln #heat
There are over 5000 brick kilns in Bangladesh. Every year 15 billion bricks are made valued at US $640 million. Bricks make up 1% of the GDP of Bangladesh. Brick manufacturing creates many jobs in Bangladesh and is a big part of the economy. The Brick industry in Bangladesh employs over 1 million people. They make 23 billion bricks each year at 7,000 kilns.
Demand for bricks is on the rise, following the growth of the construction industry amid an infrastructure boom. There are over 1000 brick kilns around the capital of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Bricks are sold whole, but they are also broken up for the production of concrete.
1000's of chimneys contribute heavily to some of the worst air pollution in the world. The brick kilns create 60 % of the particulate pollution in Dhaka.
Many of these kilns use inefficient technology with no pollution controls.
An untold number of haphazardly regulated brickmakers create clouds of smoke and dust. The World Health Organization ranks Dhaka among the top cities with the highest annual concentrations of fine particle pollution.
While traffic and burning trash contribute to air pollution in Bangladesh, it is hard to miss the impact of the brick kilns as well.
Workers travel from around the country to Dhaka’s brickmaking factories.
Workers bring their families with them to work. The families of the workers live at camps close to the factories.
According to the 2018 “State of Global Air” report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle and the research nonprofit Health Effects Institute in Boston, across the world ambient particulate matter is the 6th leading risk factor for premature death. Those risks are high in Dhaka, where fine particle pollution like PM2.5 is inhaled by residents.
Dhaka's daily PM2.5 levels soar above 200 micrograms per cubic meter in the winter. This is 8 times the level the World Health Organization considers safe. Exposure to PM2.5 has been connected to lung cancer and other health problems. One study states that it claimed 14,000 lives in Dhaka in 2014. Researchers estimated that it caused the deaths of more than 100,000 Bangladeshis.
The Bangladeshi government operates 11 continuous air monitoring stations throughout the country. 3 stations are in Dhaka, 2 in Chittagong, and 1 in each of the country’s other 6 divisions. The Department of Environment monitors and reports findings every day for 6 common pollutants, including: nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, PM2.5, PM10 and ozone.
Half of Dhaka’s hourly readings were at or above unhealthy levels according to the air quality data from 2017. Brick kilns contribute significantly to PM2.5 concentrations in the cities that they are close to. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that the daily concentration of PM2.5 is unhealthy for anyone at levels above 55.4 micrometers per cubic meter of air. Readings far above this are common. According to the State of Global Air report, since 1990, the annual PM2.5 levels in Bangladesh have increased from around 65 micrometers per cubic meter in 1990 to 101 in 2016.
#bricks #factory #bangladesh #bangla #dhaka #brick #kiln #heat
