Alarmingly high PM2.5 level found inside Chiang Mai air-pollution safe zone, but problem quickly resolved

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, rwill said:

They turned the meter off, problem solved.

 

Wouldn't be surprised in the least.... But from the OP article, it's pretty clear the govt. there either didn't have one or wasn't using one.... because it took the academic guy to come in with his own meter and show the high levels.

 

[Sparkles]

Jus another PR stunt.There are approx a million people in the province .Majority dont even have air com just fans little wonder CM boast the highest lung cancer rates in the country.

[Krataiboy]

No effort or money was spared to ensure the Prime Minister and conference delegates who visited in Chiang Mai recently were protected from the dangers of the air pollution blanketing the city.

As the parent of a daughter studying in the city, I am frankly less concerned for the the welfare of a handful of itinerant VIP's than for the fate of one million permanent residents and an entire generation of local children most at risk.

 

She tells me she and her fellow students are suffering respiratory problems and nosebleeds because of sky-high pollution levels their campus. Queues of coughing youngsters at local hospitals are clear evidence that the problem is equally serious at state schools and other educational establishments across the city.

 

They can't all cram into the so-called "safe zone" at the Convention Centre (which turned out not to be safe after all!),

 

Public appeals for donations of face-masks to make up the official shortfall are a pathetic sticking plaster which cannot cover up disgraceful official inertia at both local and national level extending over decades. 

 

Enough is enough. 

 

The government must make emergency funding available to enable all schools in Chiang Mai -and other pollution "hot spots" in the North - to be fitted with air purifiers and pollution level monitors.  If strapped for cash, cut back on those lavish junkets to foreign climes - or sell those redundant Chinese submarines.

 

 

[elliss]

5 hours ago, Thailand said:

A safe zone, really! Can we all come?

         The place , not to be .

 

[vivid]

53 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

As the parent of a daughter studying in the city, ........

 

She tells me she and her fellow students are suffering respiratory problems and nosebleeds because of sky-high pollution levels their campus. Queues of coughing youngsters at local hospitals are clear evidence that the problem is equally serious at state schools and other educational establishments across the city.

 

Bring in the babies, newborns, infants, toddlers....suffering.  Search youtube, indonesia haze 2015.  Scenes in hospitals, funerals etc.

 

Any parent seeing those would drop a tear or 2 at least.

[fullcave]

Great place to retire if you are interested in shorting you life expectancy by about four years.

[khunpa]

3 hours ago, Antonymous said:

The pattern I have logged daily is that PM2.5 is at the highest in the mornings and drops through the day, slowly or more quickly depending on wind conditions. Yesterday the reading early morning was around 350 and by 1.00pm had fallen to 80 due to some unusually strong winds. My guess is that khun Paskorn Champrasert didn't have to do a thing.

 

This is a very misleading statement. The fact is that the indoor level of PM2.5 will reach approximately the same as the outdoor level in all but near hermetically sealed buildings. And bear in mind that the indoor level will usually remain much HIGHER than the outdoor level once the outdoor level starts to drop due to wind conditions, unless the air circulating inside the building is refreshed.

 

Just think how many millions of people in Chiang Mai, elsewhere in the north and in other affected areas in Thailand live and work in simple unsealed buildings without air conditioners and air purifiers and those who also work outside.

 

This is a national disaster. I wait with choking breath to see what amazing scheme Prayuth comes up with after his visit to Chiang Mai today, almost two months after the crisis emerged.

 

 

He has already left and did not come up with anything. They showed him a leaf blower and that was basically it.

 

Now wait until rain season and a next years repeat. PR stunt over and problem fixed “Thai-Style”.

 

If you can afford it, then get out of CM until this is over.

[Lupatria]

4 hours ago, malibukid said:

class action lawsuit against the government for negligence

...not as long as the judges are connected to the NCPO.

[ttrd]

RE - Alarmingly high PM2.5 level found inside Chiang Mai air-pollution safe zone, but problem quickly resolved

 

We should not ignore the fact that the property market especially among expatriates sooner or later will collapse in this part of Thailand as this issue will continue for years ...

 

Its a bit tragic comic especially for those who moved to Thailand based on a healthier lifestyle and this is what they got ...

[Khaeng Mak]

8 hours ago, arithai12 said:

When there is a Katrina or a Fukushima disaster, then you create shelters and safety areas.

The burning problem in the North is the same predictable story every year, and creating a shelter area is just a face-saving measure which doesn't address the real issue.

All Chiang Mai council members and their families should be forced to live and work in houses and offices with open windows and no air-purifiers, and go around on scooters during the burning season. Then we'll see some actions.

 

Third world and always will be.  They love to use the latest buzz words from farang land but there is never any substance behind the facade. 

 

Same as most mechanics here.  If a guy has a sign outside his business stating that he is a mechanic, that does not mean that he knows anything at all about fixing a car.  It just means that, sometime in the past, he had enough money to buy a sign.

[Elkski]

Very sad situation.   I can't understand the poster who doesn't see any responsibility on the big corporate buyer of all this corn?  The name needs to be outed and let the boycotts begin.   This is like saying a company who buys shoes from a factory that employs children or uses buildings that don't meet firecode isn't an issue that  the corporation needs to correct.  

 

I see this is a big political issue. No wonder I couldn't find any business in BKK willing to put up a free purpleair monitor I brought from USA.  I even had an in with a head doctor with a big building on sukumvit and he declined.   The government would be pissed for real time accurate data to be sent to Google cloud every 90 seconds.  

I live near salt lake City Utah and we live in a bowl between mountains and get inversions but our worst days are less than 150. I once rode my mountain bike a 90 AQI and was coughing at the top.  Then I checked my purple air monitor and the bad air had moved in.   I now won't exercise unless it's below 75.   How cheap is the corn there compared to cirn produced elsewhere?  If the farmers were paid well and with government guidance they would be motivated to harvest the corn to make silage or something.  Any land that's caught on fire should result in very large penalty for the owner.

 

[Redline]

It’s not dust.  They are trying to make it sound harmless.

This is dust:

1. earth or other matter in fine, dry particles.
2. a cloud of finely powdered earth or other matter in the air.
3. any finely powdered substance, as sawdust.
4. the ground; the earth's surface.
5. the substance to which something, as the dead human body, is ultimately reduced by disintegration or decay; earthly remains

Or, could it be smoke:

 

the visible vapor and gases given off by a burning or smoldering substance, especially the gray, brown, or blackish mixture of gases and suspended carbon particles resulting from the combustion of wood, peat, coal, or other organic matter.

something resembling this, as vapor or mist, flying particles, etc

[joecoolfrog]

They tie themselves up in knots coming up with ridiculous schemes , why not just tackle the causes ?

[Fore Man]

18 hours ago, khunpa said:

He has already left and did not come up with anything. They showed him a leaf blower and that was basically it.

 

Now wait until rain season and a next years repeat. PR stunt over and problem fixed “Thai-Style”.

 

If you can afford it, then get out of CM until this is over.

My Thai wife was watching TV3 news and learned that at the of his visit, he made a statement to the effect that he would give farmers, et al, a 10-day grace period to stop setting fires.  She heard him say ten days, but other reports quote seven.  Apparently he did not go into any detail to discuss in what manner violators would be dealt with.  So we can only watch and hope. As another poster in another forum said, the RTA and other government forces would not have sufficient strength to overcome a far greater number of rural denizens out there in the hinterlands who would steadfastly refuse to ruin their meager livelihoods by ceasing their time-honored practice of arson.  The Thai and their Burmese cousins burn everything, always have and always will, including their dead, so why would local villagers and farmers capitulate to what could be considered as a veiled threat by an increasingly disliked Bangkok politician?

[vivid]

So in short, nothing will change.

[Fore Man]

2 hours ago, vivid said:

So in short, nothing will change.

Actually, the problem facing Chiang Mai and its surrounding provinces can be resolved in one of two ways. The most realistic way is that a heavenly deity will descend to the earth and fix everything wrong with our environment.  Then there is the miraculous way...that the Thai government and its people will figure this out all by themselves. 

[cerox]

Never seen it so bad and I have zero sympathy.

These people burning would be charged with murder in other countries.

After the grace period he can shoot them all if they do not comply. Then it can stop.

[earlinclaifornia]

I have just one word to describe my time in Vietnam and that is OPPORTUNITY.

I have just one word to describe Thailand and that is MONEY.

[cerox]

I think Vietnam is great, see many people going there.

For me I am just not really ready to learn another language, otherwise I would perhaps live in Vietnam. Took me a long time to learn Thai.

[cerox]

I like the smaller cities like Da Nang, I am sure it has developed well, I was there in 2015 last time.

[worgeordie]

Prevention is the only way,far too late and too little done

this year.......for sure the same situation is going to happen

next year,as it has done for so many years,so they have

plenty of time to formulate a plan,I hear they have Police

and the army up in the forests,they need to get them up 

in the hills early next year to at least try and PREVENT the

arsonists before they get out their matches.

regards worgeordie