Instead of fining the culprits doing the burning, they should fine the Poo Yai Ban or local government officials.. The village heads know everybody under their purview and they could put a stop to the burning if they had an incentive.

Here in Chiang Mai, nothing has changed. I live in San Kamphaeng, and everyday its 150 plus...

Don has had some nice cushty assignments in the past as a Thai ambassador. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Pramudwinai

Some valid points Cerox. As you say, the average Thai is ignorant to the long term health damage due to poor AQI caused by various burning sources. Ignorance is bliss which plays into the Govt. hands. Keep the plebs under the mushroom, what they don't know, won't hurt them.

All the verbal diarrhea government officials spout now is all about corona virus, the AQI / SMOG is just as bad a killer to tourism and peoples health, simple to fix if only they could be arsed... as always in Thailand it's all about the brown envelopes to turn a blind eye... the thicker the better... ????????

It would appear by the lack of posts that discussions on AQI have been put on hold in preference of the Wuhan Virus. January has been worse than last year, I hope that it isn't a sign of another bad year.

Before somebody says move, I can't. I bought my house, have a Thai wife and 3 kids happy at their school here in Chiang Mai unfortunately. I don't use facebook so don't know if there are discussions going on other websites regarding the AQI here in CNX.

Prayut has probably slipped out the back door and is recuperating in an another country which has nice clean air...

The Health Minister has a degree in engineering so he is hardly suited to his health position. Net worth 4.2 Billion Baht according to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anutin_Charnvirakul

Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul insisted that only about 20,000 Chinese from Wuhan city had entered Thailand during the period. That's a lot of possible carriers walking around the country. For the govt. to state that only 14 have shown symptoms is total BS....  

Forecast for the few days not good...

Welcome to Chiang Mai... if the smog doesn't get you, there is now the additional danger of the Chinese flu... Govt. does S.F.A.

In his lofty position he is used to spouting delusional verbiage and expecting everybody to believe his statements... 

5 minutes ago, VBF said:

As I hadn't used my TW account for a while, on 2nd Jan I made a "test" transfer of £10 from my UK account to my SCB account.

It had reached SCB when I checked 15 minutes later.

Now I did this at about 09:30 UK time (16:30 Thailand) and my UK bank is, like most here, on the Faster Payments scheme.

 

It might be that if you time it so you're in banking hours in both countries as I was, then it goes through faster than, say, at night or over a weekend.

 

I do know, that in the past I've used a Debit card and it has taken longer and I assume (!) that even if the card is a Debit card, the funds or authorising may still have to pass through the MasterCard or Visa systems.  YMMV, as they say.

I had confirmation email from TW that they had received the money at 4:42pm yesterday and would start the process. I received the funds in BKK bank 5 minutes ago 3:05pm so again, that's nearly 24 hrs....

23 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Mine took 20 minutes a few weeks ago using a bank transfer. If you've tagged it i suspect it may take longer

Tagged it?

Transferwise is not as quick as they used to be. I have done 3 transfers in the last 2 weeks and they have taken nearly 24 hours. Previously would only take a couple of hours max. 

I'm using HSBC debit card going to my BKK bank. Anybody else experiencing slower times?

A large number of the monitoring stations outside of Chiang Mai city do not appear to be working. I haven't seen the station working at San Kamphaeng for a number of days now. Visibility is poor, so I'm guessing that the readings must be high. I have been sick since yesterday after taking the dog for a walk in the morning.

Does anybody have a machine at home that can tell me the AQI reading for San Kamphaeng or Sarapee? I have had all the windows and doors closed since yesterday.

If the Transport Minister gets questioned about this story, no doubt his response will be 'it's just a simple misunderstanding'...

San Khampaeng is 240 again this morning. For some reason it has been the worst district for the last few days...

Thais are oblivious to the dangers to their health. This morning I saw people jogging and cycling on my Moo Ban at 7am....

Congratulations Chiang Mai in making into the top ten, and it's only December. No doubt you will get into the top 5 in the coming months. Who knows you may get the coveted No.1 spot. You should be so proud...

Dec 2019 worse than Dec 2018.... Doesn't bode well for the coming months...

The Thais wonder why there are less tourists coming to Chiang Mai. Given the air quality and with social media widely available these days informing everybody it's hardly surprising. The only tourists that will tolerate the polluted air are the Chinese as it's normal for them. ???? 

250 here in San Kamphaeng Sat 08:15.... The air is very dark and you can smell the burning. Time to migrate south fr the winter, lol...