Bangkok Air Pollution

[SoilSpoil]

FIRMS Fire map shows a lot of big fires north of Bangkok. As no government dares to upset farmers just before an election, it's time to blame Bangkok's traffic problems again.

[chubby]

Today Monday starting @ 137 Orange,  brought up this topic with some expat friends over weekend they said, they don't like AC and would have to use it  if they sealed their apartments adequately of all drafts

 

I wonder , therefore if there is any point in closing my large sliding glass balcony door on an "Orange" day if I have no   Air  Filter ?

 

I saw the Xiamo Purifier along with their other products in a glass case inside the Asoke BTS interestingly  and  I saw a guy walking out of Robinsons with an N95 Mask on (1st one I've seen since looking for one here ) 

 

 

Would it make any sense to buy a air purifier in the US and bring it here to Bangkok, maybe a wider choice and cheaper price ?

[ExpatOilWorker]

22 minutes ago, chubby said:

 

 

Would it make any sense to buy a air purifier in the US and bring it here to Bangkok, maybe a wider choice and cheaper price ?

No, the US model will most likely be 110 V.

[balo]

My meter shows around 50 today or 136 AQI, in Pattaya.

It's a clear sky but the pollution is worse now , I can feel it in my throat.

 

So will wear a mask today.

 

  

[TonyClifton]

So many stupid and non-factual replies.  If you aren't blind, then look out your window. If you can only see 1.5 miles then assume the pollution is high.  I run two very good air filters 24/7 along with air conditioning.  I breathe clean air.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

9 hours ago, chubby said:

Would it make any sense to buy a air purifier in the US and bring it here to Bangkok, maybe a wider choice and cheaper price ?

 

I have a very good, large capacity Honeywell HEPA purifier I brought from the U.S. many years ago and have used all along. But, as noted, using it or anything similar from the U.S. requires also having a step down transformer to convert the local 220 electricity into U.S. 110V.  With such a transformer, a U.S. sourced air purifier can work perfectly fine here.  And step down transformers are available here locally from electronics shops like Amorn in FortuneTown.

 

HEPA air purifiers tend to be overpriced here compared to what you'd pay in the U.S. for comparable models. But at the same time, air purifiers and transformers tend to be large / bulky / heavy items that don't go particular well in the typical airline check-in suitcase. In my case, the purifier and transformer arrived as part of a relocation shipping container shipment.

 

[edwardandtubs]

13 hours ago, chubby said:

 

I saw the Xiamo Purifier along with their other products in a glass case inside the Asoke BTS interestingly  and  I saw a guy walking out of Robinsons with an N95 Mask on (1st one I've seen since looking for one here ) 

 

 

Would it make any sense to buy a air purifier in the US and bring it here to Bangkok, maybe a wider choice and cheaper price ?

 

On the recent 11.11 sale on Lazada, the official Xiaomi shop was selling its 2s purifier for under 4000 baht, which is comparable to its price in China. They were also selling the Pro model, which is for rooms up to 60 square metres, for under 7000. If you don't have a room larger than that, there's no point importing from the US. Even if you do, running two purifiers would be effective.

[kekalot]

I'd assume that getting your hands on US sourced purifiers filters might be a bit of a headache as well.. unless of course you buy a bunch of them along with it.

 

that is only if they would even work down there, would need a voltage switching power brick input

[oval]

Moved to a new condo on a higher floor and this morning the air looked shocking from my windows. 

 

Re. air purifiers I decided to go the cheap DIY way so bought a bunch of 3M Filtrete from Central Chidlom and taped it over the filters of the 3 AC units in my place. I don't have a air quality monitor so I don't know how well they are actually working, but the Filtrete has a solid reputation and is already going a little grey. 

 

Give me the wet season over the cool season any day. I'd rather be getting wet than breathing the crap that's in the air now. 

[JimShorts]

A good quality air purifier from the US will not be any better then a good quality air purifier purchased here in Thailand. As noted it will also require a step down converter and may be a hassle getting replacement filters for it. 

 

Many top brands are available here in Thailand, such as Blueair. If you buy them during sales the prices are not too bad. 

 

Personally, I really like the Thai brand Bwell. Used by many hospitals and government agencies here in Thailand. Very reasonably priced.

 

They have HEPA filters that filter both air pullution as well as VOC. The default Blueair filters do not filter VOC and the upgrade Blueair filters are twice the cost of the standard ones. 

 

You can find more info and order Bwell from their website here: http://en.bwell-inter.com/

 

I have a few Blueair as well as a few Bwell purifiers. I also have two different brands of monitors. The Bwells work just as well as the Blueair filters, if not better. The Bwells are much less expensive to buy and the replacement filters are way less expensive. They also make small portable units which you can use when traveling or in the car. 

 

If I could do it over, I would have only purchased Bwells and saved myself a lot of money. Actually the next time I need to replace my Blueair filters, which cost more then a brand new Bwell purifier, I may just sell the Blueairs and replace with Bwells. 

 

(Hehe I sound like a Bwell sales person. Really I am just trying to share the information that others may find useful)

[meltingpot2015]

today it's moderate

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

W-T-F????   I thought my air purifier at home had stopped working properly, when my indoor sensor levels started climbing unusually high with the purifier running on medium... But no, it's the air outside, not the purifier.

 

This is one of the highest PM2.5 readings I've seen for BKK in the year that I've had sensors and purifiers at home.

 

 

This began Weds night and continued into Thurs morning. Is there some big fire somewhere or something?

[SoilSpoil]

Wind coming in from the North combined with hundreds of fires in the Central plains. Check the NASA fire map and see why. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

A bit better this morning, but not by much... Still red unhealthy for all.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

And if their forecasting capacity is any good, tomorrow/Friday could be even worse, heading into the purple / unhealthy for all.

 

[Nyezhov]

Its 170 in Thonburi, but 379 in Sapah Kwai. Thats got to be a boo boo. As of 21:00

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This is the NASA fire map for Thailand. I don't regularly look at it, but seems to be pretty amazing.

 

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#z:3;c:-180.0,23.3;d:2018-12-20..2018-12-20;l:topo,countries,firms_viirs,firms_modis_a,firms_modis_t

 

 

Here's a similar image back from Dec. 1, about three weeks ago:

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

BKK in the red / unhealthy air for a third day in a row now.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

And now we get a separate thread just for the current smog siege in BKK:

 

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1074177-bangkok-gagging-on-health-threatening-smog/?tab=comments#comment-13666738

 

[JimShorts]

3 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

BKK in the red / unhealthy air for a third day in a row now.

 

Unfortunately, based on historical statistics, it is very possible it will be like this or worse for the next couple of months, through February. 

[JimShorts]

On 12/20/2018 at 6:17 AM, SoilSpoil said:

Wind coming in from the North combined with hundreds of fires in the Central plains. Check the NASA fire map and see why. 

Great resource, thank you for sharing. 

[JimShorts]

another great forest fire resource: https://tinyurl.com/ydgzxsxm

 

On this site there is a graph, show below. Does anyone know are the yearly spikes related to crop burning, or wildfires?

 

[balo]

It's been really bad here in Pattaya as well , I measure 120 ++ which is the highest I have seen since I bought my AQI reader. 

 Yesterday it was almost like fog outside , but later I found out it was the fires up north that caused it. 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

20 minutes ago, JimShorts said:

Unfortunately, based on historical statistics, it is very possible it will be like this or worse for the next couple of months, through February. 

 

If the coming smog season is anything like last year in BKK, the bad air won't be continuous, but there will be frequent and extended spikes of heavy air pollution depending on the weather conditions, as Thais upcountry and others elsewhere engage is their seasonal burning rituals, despite repeated government pledges to put a stop to them.  Thailand and its SE Asian neighbors literally on fire.

 

 

 

[JimShorts]

True it will not be continuous, however Dec, Jan and Feb are the only months where the monthly average is above 100. 2018 Jan and Feb, 2017 Dec and Feb. 

 

http://berkeleyearth.lbl.gov/air-quality/local/Thailand/Bangkok

[LALes]

Smog season usually begins in Mid-to-late January and goes into March.

Getting an early start this year.  Crap.

[ExpatOilWorker]

5 hours ago, JimShorts said:

another great forest fire resource: https://tinyurl.com/ydgzxsxm

 

On this site there is a graph, show below. Does anyone know are the yearly spikes related to crop burning, or wildfires?

 

Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing that site.

 

WRI uses NASA Fire Information for Resource Management Sytem (FIRMS) near real time (NRT) active fire data from the MODIS and VIIRS satellites to map fire locations. The sensors on these satellites detect the heat signatures of fires from the infrared spectral band. When a fire is detected, the system indicates the area where the fire occurred with an “alert.” Because each satellite orbits the earth twice per day, these alerts can be provided in near-real time. Fire alerts are posted on the NASA FIRMS website within 3 hours of detection by the satellite.

The accuracy of fire detection has improved greatly since fire detection systems were first developed for the MODIS satellites. Fire data from the MODIS satellite are approximately 1km resolution and VIIRS satellite data has a resolution of 375m. Today, the rate of false positives is 1/10 to 1/1000 what it was under earlier systems first developed in the early 2000s. The algorithm used to detect fires includes steps to eliminate sources of false positives from sun glint, water glint, hot desert environments and others. When the system does not have enough information to detect a fire conclusively, the fire alert is discarded. In general, night observations have higher accuracy than daytime observations. Desert ecosystems have the highest rate of false positives. Many papers have been published to validate the NASA MODIS active fire alerts for use in various applications.

[balo]

AQI 140-150 today measured from my balcony  , it's really bad and I can smell it.  Been wearing a mask all day.  

 

[TonyClifton]

A picture is worth more than the mouth flapping I've read here.

 

Notice Chiang Mai is less polluted.

 

 

Sent from my Star Trek Communicator.

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Bangkok is better this morning, with the AQI back under 100, at least in the central BKK areas.