Bangkok Air Pollution

[uhuh]

Many, many Thais pay attention to the pollution. 

A worker at our condo wore a mask before i did. Slum dwellers in our neighborhood were wearing masks.  Thai office staff introduced me to Air Visual, they had it on their phones.  People from the countryside followed it on national TV daily. All these people have to breathe polluted air.

 

This pollution is caused by people with name and address: the farmer next door burning his sugar cane field (they didn't stop even at the peak of pollution), the factory owner who imports plastic trash from Europe to burn it here (the government wants to phase this out and is heavily criticized for this), the car owner.

 

 

 

[MaxYakov]

12 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

WOW.... and you think BKK has it bad.... just look to the north....

 

Here's the all Thailand view:

 

 

Then the BKK region view:

 

 

Then what the heck is this???  Did someone set the TMD office in BKK on fire???

 

Seriously, was there a large fire in that part of Bangkok that spread smoke all over?

 

And what the heck was happening in the North - probable field burning? Was it blown down into Bangkok?

 

I don't see how this severe pollution could be attributed to motor vehicles since similar levels did not occur on Monday morning's commute (or most other mornings pollution level).

 

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by MaxYakov

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, MaxYakov said:

Seriously, was there a large fire in that part of Bangkok that spread smoke all over?

 

And what the heck was happening in the North - probable field burning? Was it blown down into Bangkok?

 

I don't see how this severe pollution could be attributed to motor vehicles since similar levels did not occur on Monday morning's commute (or most other mornings pollution level).

 

 

It's not a motor vehicles thing primarily. It's probably a burning thing primarily, certainly in the North.

 

But why BKK suddenly had a big spike Tues. after several weeks of good air, who knows...

 

There rarely is an coherent explanation from the various government officials/agencies of why things happen the way they do with air pollution at certain points in time.

 

 

[JimmyJ]

Do your N95 masks need changing periodically?

How often?

 

I read somewhere - might have been an Amazon poster - stating they had to change their mask after a week (from the respirator being clogged I assume - he wasn't speaking about having to return it).

That sounds odd - much too soon if they do need changing.

 

I bought a box of 10 from Amazon of 3M N9 9211+. (About $22 USD).

(Hard to find singles on Amazon).

 

I tried it on on a few times to see how tight a seal with my face, etc.

 

One overwhelming impression - It is totally insane for me to voluntarily live anywhere where it is essential to wear one of these.

 

I realize some of you have spouses/family/bought condos, etc., so it's not that simple or not simple at all.

For anyone who has a choice, to choose to remain in this air is just crazy.

 

My original plan of living in Chiang Mai year round is of course gone. (I know this is a Bangkok air thread).

I'm wondering if there will be air quality below 25 or at least below 50 for 6 months of the year?

5 months of the year?

 

What a disappointing and dangerous mess.

 

 

Edited March 13, 2019 by JimmyJ

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, JimmyJ said:

Do your N95 masks need changing periodically?

How often?

 

I read somewhere - might have been an Amazon poster - stating they had to change their mask after a week (from the respirator being clogged I assume - he wasn't speaking about having to return it).

That sounds odd - much too soon if they do need changing.

 

I bought a box of 10 from Amazon of 3M N9 9211+. (About $22 USD).

(Hard to find singles on Amazon).

 

I tried it on on a few times to see how tight a seal with my face, etc.

 

One overwhelming impression - It is totally insane for me to voluntarily live anywhere where it is essential to wear one of these.

 

I realize some of you have spouses/family/bought condos, etc., so it's not that simple or not simple at all.

For anyone who has a choice, to choose to remain in this air is just crazy.

 

My original plan of living in Chiang Mai year round is of course gone. (I know this is a Bangkok air thread).

I'm wondering if there will be air quality below 25 or at least below 50 for 6 months of the year?

5 months of the year?

 

What a disappointing and dangerous mess.

 

How long you should keep an N95 mask depends on the extent and conditions of use. Generally, the advice is that when breathing thru it becomes more difficult, it's time to replace it. But I haven't found that advice very useful, because I find it somewhat difficult to breath thru them from the outset....

 

So for me, it depends on if I'm wearing it all day, day after day, or just for say brief hour or two outings outside and then back home. Try to keep the mask clean, keep it in its sealed package when not using. Let dry out in open air at home before putting it away to let any perspiration evaporate. And you should be able to get more than a week's wear out of one.

 

As for BKK, the AVERAGE annual PM2.5 pollution level for the city is about 26 mcg or so. But it's traditionally very seasonal -- levels that are in the good to moderate range (35 mcg and under) from about May through November. And then levels that start rising in December and often stay high through March or April, high being in the unhealthy for sensitive people (35 mcg and above) to the unhealthy for all range (55 mcg and above), days like yesterday when the local mcg readings were in the 50s to 60s.

 

[Misty]

Could some of the recent spikes in Thailand burning-related pollution be related to this:

Where does your plastic trash go now that China doesn't want it? https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/13/702501726/where-will-your-plastic-trash-go-now-that-china-doesnt-want-it

"....the Chinese government cracked down. In 2017, the government started to cut way back on plastic trash imports. Then the big bombshell: In January 2018, it banned almost all imports. Last year, China took in less than 1 percent of its 2016 total..... Meanwhile, shipments of plastic waste to other Southeast Asian countries have skyrocketed. Exports from the U.S. to Thailand jumped almost 7,000 percent in one year. ...

 

(The plastic) gets dumped in the neighboring community, and then the only way to get rid of it is to openly burn it. "

 

 

 

[manchega]

the real question is why is no one calling out the government for allowing this burning thing?

even if BKK does not give a flying one about the north, that dust has to go somewhere, and it does not usually go flying to China, ok Bangladesh and India can have it, 

 

but is none of the government going to put a stop to this burning and suggest better ways to the peasant farmers

[lopburi3]

1 hour ago, manchega said:

the real question is why is no one calling out the government for allowing this burning thing?

even if BKK does not give a flying one about the north, that dust has to go somewhere, and it does not usually go flying to China, ok Bangladesh and India can have it, 

 

but is none of the government going to put a stop to this burning and suggest better ways to the peasant farmers

Not sure it is so much the farmers preparing land up there as those insuring a living from mushroom collection six months later.

[Pravda]

Pollution this morning in Bangkok is in hazardous levels.

[lopburi3]

5 minutes ago, Pravda said:

Pollution this morning in Bangkok is in hazardous levels.

Indeed I am reading AQI of 163 here in Latphao (official reading is only 114 at last reading more than 2 hours ago).

[Misty]

32 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Indeed I am reading AQI of 163 here in Latphao (official reading is only 114 at last reading more than 2 hours ago).

The Rama IV Expressway reading was 215 at 7am.  Wonder why.  Hard to say that's from traffic at this hour on a Sunday morning.    (Edited to add or farmers, or mushroom gatherers).

 

[lopburi3]

6 minutes ago, Misty said:

The Rama IV Expressway reading was 215 at 7am.  Wonder why.  Hard to say that's from traffic at this hour on a Sunday morning.

That reporting site has been reading much higher than any other in Bangkok for some time so must be local source/placement issue. 

[Misty]

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

That reporting site has been reading much higher than any other in Bangkok for some time so must be local source/placement issue. 

That used to be my thinking too, whenever I saw Rama IV being higher than others. But this morning it seemed to be even higher than the others, and at such an early hour on a Sunday.  Makes me wonder if there's some trash burning going on.  Not yet curious enough to take a motorbike and my Sandoway to try to track a source down though. 

[MaxYakov]

How's it hangin' at the Hang Dong Hospital this morning?:

 

[uhuh]

Air4Thai reports nice green healthy smiling AQI of 26.

Farangs are whimps ????

[lopburi3]

8 minutes ago, uhuh said:

Air4Thai reports nice green healthy smiling AQI of 26.

Farangs are whimps ????

US AQI for 26 would be 80 - they are using the 2.5 PPM reading as a direct AQI.

[4675636b596f75]

On 1/23/2018 at 5:04 PM, Just Weird said:

The vendors are still breathing exactly the same air as everyone else in the area.

That may not be true.  They may be better at filtering the larger particles, which they would not be getting to the same level as someone without a mask.

[balo]

Here in Pattaya I have had a reading of around 140 AQI on my balcony for the last 3 days.Not too bad compared with Bangkok and CM.

Sent from my SM-P601 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[4675636b596f75]

6 minutes ago, balo said:

Here in Pattaya I have had a reading of around 140 AQI on my balcony for the last 3 days.Not too bad compared with Bangkok and CM.

Here in Bangkok, in my condo, I have a reading of almost 0. 

[Misty]

Another bad air day

[mommysboy]

It's been pretty bad in Surat Thani too.  In fact - not to be outdone- someone local appears to be burning plastic late afternoon and evenings.  Thailand constantly amazes me, and not always in a good way.

 

As for Bangkok- back to normal then.

[manchega]

On 3/17/2019 at 8:53 AM, Misty said:

The Rama IV Expressway reading was 215 at 7am.  Wonder why.  Hard to say that's from traffic at this hour on a Sunday morning.    (Edited to add or farmers, or mushroom gatherers).

 

the government stops reporting when levels are very high

I spuriously speculate that someone turned the monitor on in the hope of updating with a lower level only to find the true level was higher.

more realistically the governement ones are still operating on a yearly average and that may be why its is higher in the running average.

[manchega]

23 hours ago, balo said:

Here in Pattaya I have had a reading of around 140 AQI on my balcony for the last 3 days.Not too bad compared with Bangkok and CM.

Sent from my SM-P601 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

that is bad, it was only at the weekend things started climbing in BKK, and only today they are reaching 140 
AQI

[manchega]

On 3/17/2019 at 3:14 PM, uhuh said:

Air4Thai reports nice green healthy smiling AQI of 26.

Farangs are whimps ????

I think that site should state sponsored by our corrupt officials big hat and ten watches may they live long lifes and not have their theft discovered and long may the people not find out how much richer they are since 2014.......

[Misty]

1 hour ago, manchega said:

the government stops reporting when levels are very high

I spuriously speculate that someone turned the monitor on in the hope of updating with a lower level only to find the true level was higher.

more realistically the governement ones are still operating on a yearly average and that may be why its is higher in the running average.

Rama IV seems to be always on, and the numbers do jump around too much to be a yearly average. My pet theory is that someone has an open air incinerator in the area.  After all, someone has to burn all that plastic being imported to Thailand, now that China has turned it all away!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 3/17/2019 at 3:25 PM, lopburi3 said:

US AQI for 26 would be 80 - they are using the 2.5 PPM reading as a direct AQI.

 

Lopburi, believe it or not, on the Thai PCD AQI scale, a 26 micrograms of PM2.5 generates an actual THAI AQI reading of 26 (just coincidentally). That is the low end of their green section (AQI 26-50), which they consider good air quality. Just one AQI point lower on the Thai AQI scale would be what they consider very good air quality.

 

http://air4thai.pcd.go.th/webV2/aqi_info.php

 

Of course, on the more widely used and accepted U.S. EPA AQI scale, the one used by AQICN.org and others, a 26 micrograms of PM2.5 reading would translate into an AQI value of, as you pointed out, 80, which is past halfway into the EPA AQI's yellow section (AQI 51-100) for moderate air quality.

 

The reason for the Thais have their own AQI scale is because they've set a higher threshold for what they consider "safe" PM2.5 pollution than the U.S., EU and elsewhere. On the Thai scale, you don't get into the orange unhealthy for sensitive groups level until you reach a PM2.5 reading of 51 micrograms. On the U.S. scale, the orange level is triggered at 36 micrograms of PM2.5. It's a considerable difference, meaning the Thai scale is more tolerant of higher pollution levels before warnings set in.

 

The other issue about the Thai data shown above is that they're using Thai government data that typically reports publicly prior 24 hour averages, not real time or close to real time readings. With the government's prior 24 hour approach, it tends to mask the peaks that occur, making things seem better than they really are.

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[manchega]

Please someone let me know where do I grass up drivers with obviously smoke emitting vehicles

I got  a photo of a military truck chugging out smoke this morning.

 

would love to help dictators election campaign

[Dinobot]

The North of Thailand has literally been choking to death this past week, leading THE WORLD in air pollution (yes, topping even Beijing and Delhi most days).

Came across this video today, that explains one of the root causes:

[mommysboy]

Bit of a giggle. I don't know how Bumrungrad had the front to post this even in 2015. I love the last sentence!  Here's the link: https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/health-blog/march-2015/suffering-from-bangkok-big-city-air-pollution

 

According to the real-time AQI (air quality index) measurements conducted in mid March of 2015, most regions of Bangkok had AQI readings at or below 50, which results in a city-wide average of 50.

Levels of 0 to 50 indicate good air pollution levels.

Although just shy of moderate air pollution levels that have an AQI from 51 to 100, this measurement may be a surprise to international travelers who may have thought that Bangkok is just another smoggy Asian city. On the contrary!

Edited March 21, 2019 by mommysboy

[manchega]

in 15 probably compared to Shanghai etc.