Bad air quality in November?

[SoilSpoil]

Following the Gaia measuring stations and the stated pm2.5 values (http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangrai---gaia-station-01/) and seeing the mountains already blanked out, we cannot deny that the air quality is unhealthy at the moment. But I wonder why these smog levels are already so high in November. Is the smog season getting longer and longer every year? Are we looking at 8 months of bad air vs 4 months of clean, only during the rainy season? 

 

Here in the outskirts of the city, we don't have any garbage collection and the lovely purified smell of burned plastic greets my nostrils everyday around 5pm.

 

Any thoughts anyone? Is the present smog occurrence (start in November) coincidental, or a reoccurring nightmare? 

Call me gullible but, I always thought that the smoke season was only from Feb to May.

[simoh1490]

Two aspects to this:

 

the first is that the rains this year have been extremely heavy so you can expect the burning season to be bad also since there's much to be burned.

 

The second is: what you are seeing is the effects of the inversion layer where warmer air traps the cooler air near to the ground and also traps the pollution with it. It's a known long-term issue in the North and the only salvation is that the effect dissipates as the ground warms up throughout the day. The burning season will be time restricted again this year and efforts to control it last year were quite successful, people actually obeyed the rules, for the most part, no reason to think that wont happen again this year as people become more aware.

[SoilSpoil]

Thanks for your clear response

[OneZero]

For future more frequent updates / comment you may want to refer to this link in the Chiang Mai forum.  It gets far more activity than the Chiang Rai forum.

 

 

[ripstanley]

Do not forget that in the last couple of days there has been thousands of fireworks being ignited as well as those fire lit "balloons" that everyone release into the sky. . 

[peperobi]

Nearly everywhere in Thailand the same problem, the peoples prefer to burning the rubbish and don't pay money for collection.

[simoh1490]

39 minutes ago, peperobi said:

Nearly everywhere in Thailand the same problem, the peoples prefer to burning the rubbish and don't pay money for collection.

People burning rubbish is only a tiny fraction of the problem although yes, I agree, they could do better. The real problem at this time of year, especially in the North, is farmers clearing agricultural land, the highways authority cutting back overgrowth from the roads and blown in pollution from China, Laos and especially Myanmar where everybody is doing the same thing.

[4MyEgo]

35 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

People burning rubbish is only a tiny fraction of the problem although yes, I agree, they could do better. The real problem at this time of year, especially in the North, is farmers clearing agricultural land, the highways authority cutting back overgrowth from the roads and blown in pollution from China, Laos and especially Myanmar where everybody is doing the same thing.

I don't know why I suffer more than others when it comes to the smoke, just the other day taking the kids to school at 7.00am I smelt the smoke as soon as I open the front door, didn't take long for me to start coughing and feel as something layer of something was inside my mouth and throat, could even hear myself wheezing as I inhaled deeply and exhaled deeply, lets just say the start of the season caught me off guard.

 

What I have found during this season is a really good air purifier assists and of course keeping the place closed up until the smoke clears. I purchased the best product on the market, the IQAir well worth the outlay Vs a cheaper model when it comes to your health. 

[simoh1490]

2 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

I don't know why I suffer more than others when it comes to the smoke, just the other day taking the kids to school at 7.00am I smelt the smoke as soon as I open the front door, didn't take long for me to start coughing and feel as something layer of something was inside my mouth and throat, could even hear myself wheezing as I inhaled deeply and exhaled deeply, lets just say the start of the season caught me off guard.

 

What I have found during this season is a really good air purifier assists and of course keeping the place closed up until the smoke clears. I purchased the best product on the market, the IQAir well worth the outlay Vs a cheaper model when it comes to your health. 

And for the average person, a layer of inexpensive filtrette (3M) on the air conditioner works really well.

[4MyEgo]

1 minute ago, simoh1490 said:

And for the average person, a layer of inexpensive filtrette (3M) on the air conditioner works really well.

So I have heard, but doubt it does anything close to what the IQAir does, for health wise, just saying 555

[sceadugenga]

I went down to Mae Suai today, it looks to be a lot heavier further south.

[ToddinChonburi]

I clean black dust off the floor every  3 days.  Diesel and burning garbage.

Edited November 5, 2017 by ToddinChonburi

[my friend I]

Some comes from construction especially mixing cement by hand

[peperobi]

On 11/5/2017 at 1:50 PM, simoh1490 said:

People burning rubbish is only a tiny fraction of the problem although yes, I agree, they could do better. The real problem at this time of year, especially in the North, is farmers clearing agricultural land, the highways authority cutting back overgrowth from the roads and blown in pollution from China, Laos and especially Myanmar where everybody is doing the same thing.

Right Simon, I call it as well rubbish, agricultural rubbish! In the south coming that problem from Indonesia so finally is not matter where you stay in Thailand, you are always confronted with that problem

[sceadugenga]

A couple of days with early rain appear to have cleared the air quite nicely.

[MickTurator]

On 11/5/2017 at 2:33 PM, simoh1490 said:

And for the average person, a layer of inexpensive filtrette (3M) on the air conditioner works really well.

I tried that and yes it works but the filtrette is black after 5 days and needs changing.

 

[simoh1490]

26 minutes ago, MickTurator said:

I tried that and yes it works but the filtrette is black after 5 days and needs changing.

 

I'm shocked!