JohnNThai

Same can be said for Bangkok as well.

Can you provide a link to your list? As I have found data that puts average pollution in I.e. Hat Yai at 16.8 μg/m3 annually. Update: I see you’ve taken real time peak data by IQAir. I’d recommend taking a look at this all time data page by IQAir, it shows annual pollution and monthly pollution: https://www.iqair.com/th-en/world-most-polluted-cities?continent=&country=&state=&page=1&perPage=50&cities= And the question remains, when let’s say 11 μg/m3 is still 2.2x the healthy limit, is there any civilized place on earth that achieves the healthy target? Because if the WHO target is what you go by, then of course no place in Thailand can offer that ????????

South Thailand still is the part of Thailand that offers the most consistent air figures throughout the year, ranging between 10-15 μg/m3 on average. Now maybe I should’ve worded my sentence a little different, maybe using ‘comparatively’ would be better ????

Correct, this year it has reached the south as well. But past data shows a significant lower average air pollution in the south compared to the rest of the country.

Dangerous air not only in Chiang Mai, but all of Thailand north of Hua Hin. Only the south of Thailand can offer clean air.

It is not just a claim, I already guessed you would send me this ranking. Here is why: IQAir's ranking only list 100 cities out of over 1700, so roughly only 5.8% of all data is represented. I wrote about this exact problem in this report I link down below. Only Chiang Mai and Bangkok are represented in this particular list, leaving out all other major cities in Thailand and being very inconsistent with their parameters. When you look at live data for all of Thailand, Chiang Rai actually ranks higher than Chiang Mai right now. Furthermore the Chinese city of Hotan has a score nearly 200 AQI higher. These are just two examples why IQAir's ranking list isn't scientifically viable. In my report I also go over average pollution for major Thai cities, and compared with data by Thai authorities, and even with extreme peaks during burning season, Chiang Mai isn't the most polluted city in Thailand, therefore not in the world. Even Nan, although the most polluted on average, only ranks #364. #1 are Patna, India, #2 Wotan, China and #3 Lahore, Pakistan with over 100 micrometers/m3. This all is not to say that Chiang Mai has great air right now and that I am downplaying it, no, it is just extremely exaggerated in media and forums.

Why should I be in denial? This is factual data.

This isn't only a "Chiang Mai" problem, but very clearly a regional, southeast Asian problem. We are looking at pollution in Northern-, Northeastern-, Eastern- and Central Thailand throughout the year, with Chiang Mai not even the worst and the far south being the best. It is very important that we analyze which regions have what cause of pollution, how they affect the neighboring regions and how we can stop this madness. But change has to come from the local population and government officials. I, for one, will vote next month for a hopefully better future of Thailand, we have to start somewhere...

Average monthly and yearly pollution in Pattaya compared to Chiang Mai is not that much lower. We’re looking at a yearly average of 18-20 μg/m3 in Pattaya (#10 in TH) and 25 μg/m3 in Chiang Mai (#6 in TH). Bangkok has 22 μg/m3 (#8), while Nan (34 μg/m3), Chiang Rai (30 μg/m3) and Khon Kaen (27.6 μg/m3) rank 1st-3rd. So unless you move to the south of Thailand, you’ll be affected by air pollution.

Contrary to this belief, Chiang Mai isn’t actually the most polluted city in the world, nor in Thailand. It ranks #695 worldwide, with Nan, Chiang Rai and Khon Kaen ranking 1st-3rd in Thailand. Chiang Mai and Bangkok rank 6th and 8th respectively. IQAir’s ranking is scientifically highly inaccurate and by their own words not suitable for a good comparison. So unless anyone lives in the south, every region of Thailand gets hit by pollution every year. I wouldn’t fall for the clickbait articles.

This year is absolutely crazy again. Over 25,000 hotspots in Southeast Asia alone. I’m afraid we won’t see this matter resolved in our lifetime.

There’s so much that still needs to be done. Standardized sensor placement, complete sensor array as you mentioned and more study into the topic as well. It cannot go on like this. KN95 mask wearing and air purifiers are a must, except for the Deep South I haven’t been anywhere in the rest of Thailand, where I didn’t feel an effect of pollution. What just lead me to this summary is the constant sensationalism and constant ranking of this and that. Who knows how many hundred cities around the world are just as bad or even worse. And if these inaccurate readings already signify something even worse, I really don’t want to know the real values. Instead of blaming and bashing one city or region, we should be working on monitoring all places and put it measures to mitigate as much as we can.

As a lot of you have heard, read and felt in the last two months, the air quality in most parts of Thailand has been really bad to even hellish. To a point even, that Thai cities make international headlines around the world. As of this month, IQAir has released their annual report on the most polluted cities in the world for 2022, with their records going back to 2017 and being the go-to air-monitoring website. I took this chance to analyze the data and cross reference it with other local data. Please note that at no point am I downplaying anything regarding the catastrophic air quality in Thailand. Here's what I found: First of all, contrary to popular belief, Chiang Mai is not the most polluted city in the world. Nor is it the most polluted city in Thailand. IQAir's live ranking only includes 90 cities from around the world, on average two per country, sometimes less, sometimes more. We are looking at only 65 countries represented in the ranking, so what we get is a very narrow and diluted view of not only the global air situation but also the situation here in Thailand, which affects us most prominently, hence the big 'clickbait' headlines you see throughout media. Luckily, IQAir offers the function to see beyond the curated list and see a live monitoring of other cities in Thailand. As an example for the discrepancy: As of today (26.03.2023), Chiang Mai was listed as the #1 polluted city in the world ranking again with a average AQI of 205, but the Thai live ranking reveals that Chiang Rai had an average AQI of 491, followed by Mae Hong Son, Nan and Bueang Kan (Isan). Now is this clarification making the situation any better? Absolutely not. This just acts as an example to show that the problem is far more widespread than one city and that we cannot and should not determine a #1, but rather determine regions, patterns and effects from multiple sources, so it can be fought, because I don't think that solely eliminating Chiang Mai's air pollution would help the North or even Thailand as a whole. It is too complicated for that. But for those that are interested where Chiang Mai ranks globally (hint: it is nowhere near the top), keep reading. A much better way to determine patterns regarding air quality in Thailand, and around the world, is to look at yearly averages for PM2.5 pollution. For that we can look at data from IQAir, the WHO and the Pollution Control Department of Thailand, though I will primarily be relying on IQAir's data in this instance. In the case of Chiang Mai, it ranked #1208 (18.4 μg/m3) in 2022 and based on the average yearly pollution from 2017-2022 it ranks around #695 (25.6 μg/m3). Bangkok ranks on average around #890. Nan, as the most polluted Thai city on average, ranks around #364 (34.1 μg/m3). Thailand overall ranked #57 (18.1 μg/m3) out of 131 countries. The most polluted cities in the world would be Patna, India with a average pollution of 114.5 μg/m3, followed by Wotan, China with 104 μg/m3 and Lahore, Pakistan with a average of 100.1 μg/m3. The most polluted countries are Chad, Iraq and Pakistan, with China and Indonesia being the most polluted in East and South-East Asia. I compiled a list of averages of 20 bigger cities in Thailand with data for the year 2022 and a list for cities that have past recorded data in the timespan from 2017-2022. You will see quite a few cities more for only 2022, as these have just received their monitoring stations and thus their yearly average in 2022. For 2022 (numbers representing PM2.5 in (μg/m3)): Nan (30.4) Lampang (27.2) Khon Kaen (25.1) Samut Sakhon (23.9) Ubon Ratchathani (23.5) Samut Songkhram (23.2) Sukhothai (23.1) Chiang Rai (21.8) Nakhon Sawan (21.8) Udon Thani (21.6) Phitsanulok (20.7) Ayutthaya (20.6) Chon Buri (19.1) Chiang Mai (18.4) Pattaya (18.2) Samut Prakan (18.1) Bangkok (18) Nonthaburi (18) Hua Hin (17.3) Hat Yai (16.2) Most polluted cities based on data history (Not representative for 2023 but based on data between 2017-2022): Nan (34,1) Chiang Rai (30.6) Khon Kaen (27.6) Korat (27.1) Samut Sakhon (26.8) Chiang Mai (25.6) Nakhon Sawan (22.4) Bangkok (22.4) Ayutthaya (22.1) Hua Hin (18.8) We can clearly see a pattern of pollution in Northern, Central, Eastern and Northeastern Thailand. This becomes even more apparent when looking at data for towns as well. Thailand and Asia in general suffers from a pollution problem that cannot be tackled alone. It has to be a regional effort. But it should also be no excuse for officials to just lay down their arms and do nothing to improve the situation. I hope this can reach and people better understand the data behind all the headlines. As a last point I have one advice for everyone: Please research topics, especially one as important and life affecting as this, so we all can contribute with ideas and not just senseless attacks and blaming. Thank you. https://www.iqair.com/th-en/world-most-polluted-cities?continent=&country=&state=&sort=-rank&page=1&perPage=50&cities= https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/air-pollution https://www.pcd.go.th