Health Advisory

[Rasseru]

I imagine groans emerging from behind monitors across Chiangmai at the sight of the rebirth of this ancient thread on a subject second in popularity only to that of where be the best burgers in town.

Fear not! This post has two purposes, one pleasant, the other fairly innocuous.

The first purpose is to remind us all that one year ago, to both the day and the month, things atmospheric were much less nice than they are this year. In other words, we're having a great time these days, isn't it lovely?

The second relates to the following:

I've tried addressing this problems by looking to purchase decent sir purifier for my home but there are none available. The ones that you see in the shops, Bionaire and Honeywell etc have very poor efficiency ratings and are way overpriced. The really useful ones that are made in the US, Austin Air, IQ Air, Health Pro Plus etc will not ship to Thailand for fear of copyright infringement, I know, I've asked them and they refuse.

I am getting ready to ready a new apartment to live in, and I have a question. Does any one know whether there are now available in Chiangmai any good air purification or filtering machines -- whatever they might be called, and whether part of air conditioning units or otherwise -- that one can install in a home? And if I might be permitted to add a second question, how would one get one's hands on such a thing?

Thanks much in advance for any suggestions or ideas.

[Polsevogn]

This doesn't look good does it.. Is this normal these days? Very hazy and just crap air.. I'm caughing..

[Rasseru]

This doesn't look good does it.. Is this normal these days? Very hazy and just crap air.. I'm caughing..

I imagine Ulysses G. is laughing too.

[adjan jb]

Where I live, the air is clean. If there's crap in your neighbourhood, it was dropped by a plane

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

I am getting ready to ready a new apartment to live in, and I have a question. Does any one know whether there are now available in Chiangmai any good air purification or filtering machines -- whatever they might be called, and whether part of air conditioning units or otherwise -- that one can install in a home? And if I might be permitted to add a second question, how would one get one's hands on such a thing?

Thanks much in advance for any suggestions or ideas.

The simplest and fairly effective way is to buy 3M Filtrete filter material and then cut it and insert over top of the regular plastic filter in your A/C Unit. I think a package of Filtrete is in the 300 - 400 baht range and should provide 2-3 changes.

Even if you don't need A/C then you can just run the blower without chilling to recirculate and filter the air.

Last year mine would turn partially black after a week or so during the worst of it.

They used to sell the 3M packages at Tops but haven't seen them this year. I am living off my last years supply.

Does anybody know where to buy the 3M Filtrete now?

[Gravelrash]

Actually saw those hot air balloons this morning, well the nearby ones, those a bit distant disappearred into the haze. Mind you they must have had a fantastic view from those things...of grey haze. Can see this really catching on big time as another festival. Come to Chiang Mai, cough and see the smog from a great height. Nothing changes nor will it. My daughters started coughing again, hopefully will be able to afford evacuating here at this time of the year next year.

[Bill97]

I am getting ready to ready a new apartment to live in, and I have a question. Does any one know whether there are now available in Chiangmai any good air purification or filtering machines -- whatever they might be called, and whether part of air conditioning units or otherwise -- that one can install in a home? And if I might be permitted to add a second question, how would one get one's hands on such a thing?

Thanks much in advance for any suggestions or ideas.

The simplest and fairly effective way is to buy 3M Filtrete filter material and then cut it and insert over top of the regular plastic filter in your A/C Unit. I think a package of Filtrete is in the 300 - 400 baht range and should provide 2-3 changes.

Even if you don't need A/C then you can just run the blower without chilling to recirculate and filter the air.

Last year mine would turn partially black after a week or so during the worst of it.

They used to sell the 3M packages at Tops but haven't seen them this year. I am living off my last years supply.

Does anybody know where to buy the 3M Filtrete now?

3M distributor is on Wualai Rd, it is called Chiang Mai Intertrade I think, they sell mostly electrical stuff but have 3M stuff in stock and can order it. Going from Pratu Chiang Mai, the south gate, you pass the statue of the cow on the left and after another 80? meters it is on the left. Marble front on the store.

[Ulysses G.]

Where I live, the air is clean. If there's crap in your neighbourhood, it was dropped by a plane

The air in the Thapae Gate Bubble was fine today. Are you located in the Saraphi Bubble?

[Rasseru]

The simplest and fairly effective way is to buy 3M Filtrete filter material and then cut it and insert over top of the regular plastic filter in your A/C Unit.

Do you happen to know how effective it is at removing the extremely short particles that are, apparently, the greatest danger to one's lungs?

[Rasseru]

My bet would be on them catching most of the fine particles, as when I washed them out, it only looked like dust on the outside, kinda brown-grey, yet when the water hit it there was a stream of BLACK that just kept coming.

Would that one could similarly wash one's lungs, eh?

[Rasseru]

For any following this discussion who are interested, there is of course considerable information about 3M Filtrete filters available through a simple googling. Too hard, at least for me, to summarize here meaningfully, so I am not going to try.

[adjan jb]

Where I live, the air is clean. If there's crap in your neighbourhood, it was dropped by a plane

The air in the Thapae Gate Bubble was fine today. Are you located in the Saraphi Bubble?

Yep. Sparkling Saraphi.

Edited March 5, 2008 by adjan jb

[realthaideal]

Just you n a few noisy others. I just don't notice the bad here. I saw beautiful weather with plenty of sun. Ate lunch at a favorite khao man gai place. Had great views driving over the river n some breezes. And then a great sunset headed back into town today. Have you seen only the brown trees for the verdant forest ?

[FolkGuitar]

Just you n a few noisy others. I just don't notice the bad here. I saw beautiful weather with plenty of sun. Ate lunch at a favorite khao man gai place. Had great views driving over the river n some breezes. And then a great sunset headed back into town today. Have you seen only the brown trees for the verdant forest ?

8:05 Thursday morning.... I can't see Doi Suthep from 200 m east of the Rincom junction of the superhighway. On the bright side, this time last year I couldn't see the ground from my 14th floor window so I guess the air quality is better. All day yesterday all I could smell was burning garbage. I don't mind the smell of burning rice fields or burning brush (I don't particularly care for the particulate matter in the air though,) but the smell of burning garbage was enough to cause me to set incense burning in all my rooms. I'd rather be choked out by sandalwood or jasmine smoke than rubber tire smoke...

[pulsevogn]

Makes me shake my head when you see the BIB on the street with their cloth masks....that are doing nothing but making them look silly.

I think their primary aim is to hide their identity. Sure isn't doing much against pollution.

[johnsjourney]

http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/G...fm?task=default for the answer - chose 'PM-10 Index' and Chiang Mai.

Yesterday was the worst day this year I think so far. Best to stay indoors and do less those days, because it effects the immune system. The particles are far too small to see or smell, except against mountains in the distance. Bangkok air pollution is easier to detect but much less harmful, if lung cancer rates are anything to go by. Not a good idea to be here regularly February to March it seems. Though I'm not quite ready to be an expat twice - perhaps there is a Chiang Mai expat community in Surat Thani!

[Bananaman]

http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/G...fm?task=default for the answer - chose 'PM-10 Index' and Chiang Mai.

Yesterday was the worst day this year I think so far. Best to stay indoors and do less those days, because it effects the immune system. The particles are far too small to see or smell, except against mountains in the distance. Bangkok air pollution is easier to detect but much less harmful, if lung cancer rates are anything to go by. Not a good idea to be here regularly February to March it seems. Though I'm not quite ready to be an expat twice - perhaps there is a Chiang Mai expat community in Surat Thani!

Well there ya go, the statistics speak for themselves. The air has been horrible the last few days, anyone riding down the Superhighway would be blind not to have seen it and the lack of anything other than a very faint outline of the the top of Doi Suthep at midday yesterday is evidence enough in itself.

Quite why you chaps who are irritated by the resurgence of this subject even bother to open threads, the titles of which are fairly indicative of their content, is beyond me. If it bores you as much as you say then to even go to the effort of posting about it just strikes me as plain bizarre. Are you all masochists or genuinely that hard-pushed to find something better to occupy your time?

[Blinky Bill]

http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/G...fm?task=default for the answer - chose 'PM-10 Index' and Chiang Mai.

Yesterday was the worst day this year I think so far. Best to stay indoors and do less those days, because it effects the immune system. The particles are far too small to see or smell, except against mountains in the distance. Bangkok air pollution is easier to detect but much less harmful, if lung cancer rates are anything to go by. Not a good idea to be here regularly February to March it seems. Though I'm not quite ready to be an expat twice - perhaps there is a Chiang Mai expat community in Surat Thani!

If you hurry you should be able to make the evening flight from Bangkok to Surat Thani. When you get there you could sit down at the Koh Samui ferry wharf down town and tell all the "Cheap Charlie" backpackers how dirty and unhealthy the water is in the Gulf of Thailand.

Edited March 6, 2008 by Blinky Bill

[Rasseru]

http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/G...fm?task=default for the answer - chose 'PM-10 Index' and Chiang Mai.

Most excellent! Glad to see we've been below standard every day for the last three weeks, most of the time far, far below!

[Priceless]

http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/G...fm?task=default for the answer - chose 'PM-10 Index' and Chiang Mai.

Most excellent! Glad to see we've been below standard every day for the last three weeks, most of the time far, far below!

Rasseru,

It's even better than that. We've been below the standard (i.e. max acceptable level) since 4 April last year!

/ Priceless

[Ulysses G.]

If I am reading it right, it says that we are at moderate level air quality in Chiang Mai and very close to good air quality .

What are the Wheezing Wingers whining about?

[Rasseru]

http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/G...fm?task=default for the answer - chose 'PM-10 Index' and Chiang Mai.

Most excellent! Glad to see we've been below standard every day for the last three weeks, most of the time far, far below!

Rasseru,

It's even better than that. We've been below the standard (i.e. max acceptable level) since 4 April last year!

/ Priceless

That's priceless!

[Rasseru]

If I am reading it right, it says that we are at moderate level air quality in Chiang Mai and very close to good air quality .

What are the Wheezing Wingers whining about?

You know how it is. When you've got the urge, you've just got to whinge.

[realthaideal]

Alright, here's one for ya....

Maybe it's time for the Tuskers Summertime Hey-What's-The-Deal-With-The-Air Pissup. We could all have few good drinks and then divide into eloquent groups of 'Yes, I'm bothered,' or 'No, I'm not bothered' and stage a pointed discussion on the issue. When the going gets smoggy, the tough get drinking.

[FolkGuitar]

If I am reading it right, it says that we are at moderate level air quality in Chiang Mai and very close to good air quality .

What are the Wheezing Wingers whining about?

You know how it is. When you've got the urge, you've just got to whinge.

Not to say that it's bad, but I couldn't even make out the outlines of your building until around 11am this morning. It's like "Brigadoon." It only becomes visible for a few hours every hundred years....

Usually I don't complain about the pollution. I screwed up my lungs myself long ago. But today it was my eyes that were taking a beating. THAT'S unusual!

[Rasseru]

Not to say that it's bad, but I couldn't even make out the outlines of your building until around 11am this morning.

I grant you, it is a cloudy day.

[Jefferson]

Just looking out the window will tell you a thing or two about what you're breathing.

Also if I check the pcd site that was quoted, the PM-10 levels today are higher than the limit.

That can't possibly be healthy, cannit? I'm not whining, I mean I do lots of other things that aren't exactly healthy, but... breathing is something I like doing unobstructed.

[Viceroy]

It is the poor air quality time of the year again in Chiang Mai, and the posting about it is much the same as in past years: (1) There are those who, quite correctly, point out the obvious, that the air quality is poor. (2) There are others who, no doubt having their own particular agendas, always defend the quality of the Chiang Mai air even when one cannot see a meter into the distance. They are frequently the same chaps who defend everything Thai and encourage dissenters to go on back where they came from, without delay. (3) And then there is the local foreign businessman who predictably scoffs at the suggestion that the air quality is poor and therefore perhaps dangerous to one’s health. He and those in group (2) always accuse those in group (1) of whingeing. Today, a glance toward Doi Suthep from downtown affirms the finding of group (1). And common sense suggests that, just as inhaling trash-laden cigarette smoke into one’s lungs is unhealthy, so is breathing opaque air. It is just common sense. Whingeing or not whingeing does not alter it.

[Priceless]

Just looking out the window will tell you a thing or two about what you're breathing.

Also if I check the pcd site that was quoted, the PM-10 levels today are higher than the limit.

That can't possibly be healthy, cannit? I'm not whining, I mean I do lots of other things that aren't exactly healthy, but... breathing is something I like doing unobstructed.

Yup, the 24 hours ending at 9:00 AM this morning were definitely not good and today is not looking any better Let's hope for some wind, possibly rain and definitely that we don't get a persistent inversion like last year's

/ Priceless

Edited March 6, 2008 by Priceless

[Ulysses G.]

Not to say that it's bad, but I couldn't even make out the outlines of your building until around 11am this morning.

I grant you, it is a cloudy day.

When I lived in San Francisco, it was "cloudy" every day and looked much like it does here - even though the air quality there is some of the best in the U.S.

If it looks foggy here, I don't always assume that it is pollution which is what some people seem to be claiming. If the air seems fresh, I am guessing the mists are some kind of clouds or fog.