Smoggy

[Don Chance]

when does the smog clear up?

 

Accord to this, it looks overall bad. I though Krabi was usually good but i guess that has changed.

 

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/particulates/surface/level/overlay=pm10/orthographic=99.37,10.09,3000

Edited April 16, 2018 by Don Chance

[masuk]

There is no fog in this revolting mixture of burned crop, forest, mixed with used pesticides.

Every flat surface in my room is covered in the gunk and hard to imagine this is what the entire population is breathing.  It has also cost friends of mine, 1000s of baht to buy air filters.

In Australia, a lung specialist told me to give up smoking immediately.    I've never smoked in my life!!

[connda]

On 4/17/2018 at 4:56 AM, Don Chance said:

when does the smog clear up?

When the rain shows up. 

[Don Chance]

That map shows differently today, looks much better.  isn't there are fair bit of rain now?

[IAMHERE]

Smog clearing up in Thailand would be a sign that the Apocalypse is nigh.

[Don Chance]

Seems the problem is mostly in Chiang mai.

 

 

I am having doubts about the first map. Seems the data conflicts with this airpollution index.

 

http://aqicn.org/map/thailand/#@g/11.7008/99.4702/6z

[sangtip2]

Don't worry about it ---   it will get worse 

[canopy]

You must be new. The problem is not "mostly Chiang mai". The entire north of Thailand is blanketed in smog for half the year. There are no exceptions. Areas where the air quality goes green are simply where rain occurred recently. People install air filters and stay inside. It's nothing new. Plenty of threads going on this topic.

 

[simoh1490]

10 minutes ago, canopy said:

You must be new. The problem is not "mostly Chiang mai". The entire north of Thailand is blanketed in smog for half the year. There are no exceptions. Areas where the air quality goes green are simply where rain occurred recently. People install air filters and stay inside. It's nothing new. Plenty of threads going on this topic.

 

Half the year, rubbish!

 

It's different things in different years, on average over the past 15 years the burning is a problem during the hot season, from late January/early February until the rains come in April, this is why the burning ban exists during that period.  Some burning does take place earlier in November and December but the cooler air makes it far less problematical.

[Odysseus123]

On 4/23/2018 at 5:54 PM, masuk said:

There is no fog in this revolting mixture of burned crop, forest, mixed with used pesticides.

Every flat surface in my room is covered in the gunk and hard to imagine this is what the entire population is breathing.  It has also cost friends of mine, 1000s of baht to buy air filters.

In Australia, a lung specialist told me to give up smoking immediately.    I've never smoked in my life!!

Yeah.It's pure crap..

 

Hacking one's lungs out is good for one's soul and you can always console yourself with two stock phrases.

 

"You are in Thailand now so respect the pollution"

 

"When you're in Rome cough as the Romans do."

[canopy]

8 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

Half the year, rubbish!

 

It seems you have some learning to do. What you call a bad month is somewhat dependent on what scale you use. According the US EPA in 2017 there were 3 months in Chiang Mai that averaged green zone air (good). The other 9 months weren't so good quality. Of course there were some days that were far better or far worse than the averages. AQI figures are below.

 

 

 

 

[simoh1490]

26 minutes ago, canopy said:

It seems you have some learning to do. What you call a bad month is somewhat dependent on what scale you use. According the US EPA in 2017 there were 3 months in Chiang Mai that averaged green zone air (good). The other 9 months weren't so good quality. Of course there were some days that were far better or far worse than the averages. AQI figures are below.

 

 

 

 

The last I heard, Chiang Mai Province didn't come under the jurisdiction of the US EPA, neither has Thailand ever acted on any of their guidelines or directives!

 

Thailand does acknowledge the WHO guidelines on air quality and they, along with 92% of all countries in the world failed to adhere to them. With that in mind, Thailand Pollution Control Deopt., the PCD, did develop its own standards which are much more relaxed than the WHO guidelines but are also more realistic targets. 

 

You perhaps also need to read up on AQI, I quote: "The score for each pollutant is non-linear, as is the final AQI score. Thus an AQI of 300 does not mean twice the pollution of AQI at 150, nor does it mean the air is twice as harmful. The concentration of a pollutant when its IAQI is 100 does not equal twice its concentration when its IAQI is 50, nor does it mean the pollutant is twice as harmful. While an AQI of 50 from day 1 to 182 and AQI of 100 from day 183 to 365 does provide an annual average of 75, it does not mean the pollution is acceptable even if the benchmark of 100 is deemed safe. This is because the benchmark is a 24-hour target. The annual average must match against the annual target. It is entirely possible to have safe air every day of the year but still fail the annual pollution benchmark.^{[17]"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_quality_index}

Edited April 26, 2018 by simoh1490

[canopy]

I want to understand the air quality measured against well thought out standards, not Thailand's fudged numbers. Thailand deliberately omits the dangerous PM 2.5 from its data. Worse, Thailand does not follow WHO but rather came up with its own more lenient AQI scale apparently so they can tell the people how good the air is when it isn't. Hence, I trust the US EPA scale much more than Thailand's system.

 

Everyone who looks at the sky can see the air goes bad starting around October when the rains stop, the haze grows, the views diminish, the sun disappears behind the smog before it reaches the horizon, and independent web sites monitoring the air show it is no longer good. You find this acceptable air. Others do not. Even the Chinese of all people visiting Thailand complained about the poor air quality in early February of this year:

 

Air quality is fine in Thailand as Thais say Chinese are exaggerating

 

[simoh1490]

On 4/26/2018 at 5:33 PM, canopy said:

I want to understand the air quality measured against well thought out standards, not Thailand's fudged numbers. Thailand deliberately omits the dangerous PM 2.5 from its data. Worse, Thailand does not follow WHO but rather came up with its own more lenient AQI scale apparently so they can tell the people how good the air is when it isn't. Hence, I trust the US EPA scale much more than Thailand's system.

 

Everyone who looks at the sky can see the air goes bad starting around October when the rains stop, the haze grows, the views diminish, the sun disappears behind the smog before it reaches the horizon, and independent web sites monitoring the air show it is no longer good. You find this acceptable air. Others do not. Even the Chinese of all people visiting Thailand complained about the poor air quality in early February of this year:

 

Air quality is fine in Thailand as Thais say Chinese are exaggerating

 

I'm trying to gather some information regarding sensors/monitoring stations and also some history so that I can respond to what you've written, in the process of doing so I came across the following  which uses the US EPA scale and contradicts what you have written, note the decline over time:

 

 http://ourchiangmai.com/2017/05/02/chiang-mai-smog-declines-2017/

[canopy]

Good article. What exactly is the contradiction?