Chiang Mai in crisis: Foreigners give their verdict "terrible and it smells"

[ftpjtm]

5 hours ago, Berkshire said:

Not sure what the point of this comment is.  Every Thai I know hates the crappy air as much as the farangs. 

When the bad air was a little closer to home, and my Thai wife was wearing a mask to keep from coughing, she was incredulous that someone wasn't doing SOMETHING to solve this problem, as the air was clearly much worse than what we're used to in the US.

 

Meanwhile, in the Thai neighborhood, a neighbor cut down some trees and bushes. All the farangs in the neighborhood begged and pleaded with the security guards not to burn the brush, and let the trash haulers take it away. None of the Thai's, including my wife, could see any sense in that. It would cost the neighborhood a few hundred extra baht to haul the brush rather than burn it. 

 

The stand off was settled in a way the Thai's assumed would make everyone happy. The brush was drug a few hundred meters down the street and burned there.

 

Meanwhile, Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel has been mandated in the US and Europe for more than a decade, but not in Thailand. The US EPA estimated the adoption of ULSD to eliminate 110,000 tons of airborne particulate matter annually.

 

TIT

Edited April 5, 2019 by ftpjtm

[Krataiboy]

an air of frustration

 

Kind of sums it all up.

[Teacherduck]

Typical government over the past 5 years, just react don"t proact. That might mean being seen as the enemy of the people.

Try passing a law to stop burning off, with heavy fines, and get the black smoke vehicles off the road, and impound them, but hey that means the traffic police will have to do some work. Can't have that!!!!!   They wouldn't understand or know that law anyway.  That's Thailand.  Is there a 4th world country???  I think so.

[zyphodb]

Chiang Mai? Redshirt heartlands? Do you honestly see the Bangkok centric Generals actually caring in the slightest what happens up there?????

[vivid]

The problem is also due to that a good portion of the tourists comprises of the elderly.  So that particular group would be hit particularly hard.  

Even if they do not have pre-existing medical conditions, the teary eyes, sore throats and constant headaches is gonna be bad.

 

I mean you can't be hitting yourself silly with paracetamol/antihistamines for that 4-6 days while travelling around the northern provinces right?  Might even exhaust the 20 tablets of paracetamol that they have brought along.

[observer90210]

No point in raising alarm here, as the only way people will react and understand,  is once it is all over social networks and international media.

[Burma Bill]

Quote:-

"would lead to measures being put in place to end the desperate situation"

Do these include liaison with neighboring Burma (Myanmar) where a lot of the air pollution originates??? 

[matta]

Is a Thai translation of the quote from Albert Einstein available in Thai? :   " The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. "

[vivid]

1 hour ago, mberbae said:

Until the locals take to the streets to demand ACTION ,

nothing will change. Remember last year when the

Governor of CM did NOT want people to wear masks

because it was BAD for the image of Chiang Mai ? !

What the...... i'm totally speechless. ????

[atyclb]

also seems this year lots of bkk and pattaya sewers are especially awfully smelly, worse than ive experienced in past years.

[ftpjtm]

2 minutes ago, atyclb said:

also seems this year lots of bkk and pattaya sewers are especially awfully smelly, worse than ive experienced in past years.

During the dry season, there's less rain water to purge the illegally dumped grey water and sewage from them.

[Lacessit]

Cause-effect is not well understood in Thailand.  Somchai bribes the vehicle inspector to give his belching pickup a tick when he renews his registration. Local government buses emit blue smoke on every acceleration.  A street vendor roasts their chickens or fish. Dead leaves are raked up and burned. Thais cook their evening meal over charcoal. A villager fires a forest so they can harvest mushrooms later. The rice and cornfields burn because a match is cheaper than a plough.

All do this under the assumption they are not contributing to the smog, or if they do realise it, that their contribution is too small to matter.

It would take a complete change of mindset to effectively reduce smog. Meantime, the only remedy is rain.

[vivid]

5 hours ago, cerox said:

Compared to two years ago, when I was briefly here in that season I see much more people (Thais) with a real mask, so the awareness has improved a bit. However once people sit in their car they put off their mask, so it just shows me that people do not understand what they are doing.

 

 

Side track a bit : Over here in my country (SG), there is a small group of pax who care about air quality who put electrostatic or even "HEPA" pleated filters into the AC filter slot that's under the glove compartment.

 

ok the "HEPA" filters are really just H10 but that'd still do nicely esp in such a small cabin space in the car vs the output of the AC in high fan speed mode. High CADR relative to the volume in the car cabin is all that matters.

 

If you cannot get the exact filter size for the filter slot, just cut a bigger filter down to size and slot it in.  There should be DIY type filters being sold on Lazada TH.   There would be leakage of course , but still would work as long as there is air flowing past the filter.  A PM2.5 meter directly over the AC vents would confirm this.

 

[Assurancetourix]

5 hours ago, cerox said:

But there is a significant difference. They mostly do not complain and many of them do not even bother to wear a mask, use a purifier etc. so it cannot be important to them, otherwise they would protect themselves.

The Face !!

The Face is more important than life here ...

[jimmypattaya]

for sure the foreigners fault. no Thai could ever do this. ????

[gerritkaew]

I think 95% off all cars and trucks in thailand runing on diesel, so where comes the smog from..

[totally thaied up]

I would watch Somchai throw his plastic on the fire, go inside his shack outside my old village and I would watch while his whole place would be smelt out by the plastic he burned. Just would not care.

 

That is the issue we are really facing. Same Somchai later goes to the mountain to burn off the forest so he can go pick mushrooms easier. 

 

Nothing will ever improve as education is lacking out in these same villages. Year in, year out, it will be the same. Add now the corn crops and the fact they will burn it all off, it’s just getting messier each year. 

 

I will expect the same next year. Nothing will change as it is profit over sense.

Edited April 5, 2019 by totally thaied up

[Phaser]

Bought a place in Chiang Mai two years ago planning to retire here from BKK, planning with an architect a complete rebuild - now, with the air so bad for last 3 months - the quality of life is now ZERO. Staying at home behind air purifiers, can't ride my big bike or work out for fear of harming my health. Eye infection for now almost 3 weeks and absolutely no declaration of a national health or environmental disaster throwing all the nation's resources to alleviate this disaster. What a complete mess....somehow building a house and a life in a place that is unlivable for many months a year - just doesn't make sense.

[Destiny1990]

Amazing every year its the same story.

Funny that many foreigners have moved to Chiang Mai for their health.

[toofarnorth]

1 hour ago, rumak said:

i think Denile is in Egypt

Ok , I admit defeat and I am a Jamaican  chiropodist .

[ftpjtm]

25 minutes ago, Phaser said:

Bought a place in Chiang Mai two years ago planning to retire here from BKK, planning with an architect a complete rebuild - now, with the air so bad for last 3 months - the quality of life is now ZERO. Staying at home behind air purifiers, can't ride my big bike or work out for fear of harming my health. Eye infection for now almost 3 weeks and absolutely no declaration of a national health or environmental disaster throwing all the nation's resources to alleviate this disaster. What a complete mess....somehow building a house and a life in a place that is unlivable for many months a year - just doesn't make sense.

Wife and I came to look at potential retirement spots several years ago. The plan was to spend winter months here, and with the Xmas holiday better spent with family in the US, that apparently leaves "burning season" as the time we'd be in Chiang Mai, which I figured to be the place I'd choose due to climate and my need to be in an international environment. 

 

Being up in the hills and looking down on the smog encased city was so depressing to me, we wrote our Chiang Mai plans off. Better to be near the sea, so you have a better chance of some clean air blowing on shore every once in a while.

[ftpjtm]

55 minutes ago, gerritkaew said:

I think 95% off all cars and trucks in thailand runing on diesel, so where comes the smog from..

And no requirement for Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel, so more particulates emitted from each vehicle than in Europe or North America.

[rumak]

25 minutes ago, toofarnorth said:

Ok , I admit defeat and I am a Jamaican  chiropodist .

inability to admit defeat is the achilles heel of many on this forum.  

[PerkinsCuthbert]

Surely the problem is more than halfway to being solved; was it not decreed thus but a few days ago, by General Happiness?

[emptypockets]

2 hours ago, White Christmas13 said:

not only silly but stupid as well

I wonder who is the stupid one?  The poster suggesting to leave the pollution or the poster living with the pollution and then calling him stupid for stating the obvious? 

[owenm]

Thailand's junta have proved that they look after no. 1, themselves and not the people. CM having the world's worst pollution for weeks on end, and in-action from local and national government is an absolute disgrace while the people suffer life threatening exposure to the world's worst air quality.. 

 

Thailand also has the most dangerous roads with up to 60 road deaths daily making it no. 1 for road fatalities worldwide annually per capita.. 

Police that don't know the law and how to enforce law and order.. 

 

Six weeks after the election, for the EC to decide who has won depending on what interpretation of voting seats they decide to accept as to who the newly elected government is.. The country is becoming a joke with its 3rd world attitude to everything that concerns the people, rather than looking to improve the country for the people.. 

 

Expats are getting screwed at every corner with constant changing visa requirements to stay legal in their temporary home, because goal posts are constantly changing.. Being asset rich with a quality house dwelling, a car and bike, but with a small pension will soon be told you are longer welcome here in Thailand.. TIT.. Rant over.. 

 

 

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, rumak said:

inability to admit defeat is the achilles heel of many on this forum.  

Depends. Some posters on TV remind me of the Dilbert aphorism: " Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level, and beat you with experience."

[malibukid]

damm those farangs always complaining

[malibukid]

1 hour ago, owenm said:

Thailand's junta have proved that they look after no. 1, themselves and not the people. CM having the world's worst pollution for weeks on end, and in-action from local and national government is an absolute disgrace while the people suffer life threatening exposure to the world's worst air quality.. 

 

Thailand also has the most dangerous roads with up to 60 road deaths daily making it no. 1 for road fatalities worldwide annually per capita.. 

Police that don't know the law and how to enforce law and order.. 

 

Six weeks after the election, for the EC to decide who has won depending on what interpretation of voting seats they decide to accept as to who the newly elected government is.. The country is becoming a joke with its 3rd world attitude to everything that concerns the people, rather than looking to improve the country for the people.. 

 

Expats are getting screwed at every corner with constant changing visa requirements to stay legal in their temporary home, because goal posts are constantly changing.. Being asset rich with a quality house dwelling, a car and bike, but with a small pension will soon be told you are longer welcome here in Thailand.. TIT.. Rant over.. 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, owenm said:

Thailand's junta have proved that they look after no. 1, themselves and not the people. CM having the world's worst pollution for weeks on end, and in-action from local and national government is an absolute disgrace while the people suffer life threatening exposure to the world's worst air quality.. 

 

Thailand also has the most dangerous roads with up to 60 road deaths daily making it no. 1 for road fatalities worldwide annually per capita.. 

Police that don't know the law and how to enforce law and order.. 

 

Six weeks after the election, for the EC to decide who has won depending on what interpretation of voting seats they decide to accept as to who the newly elected government is.. The country is becoming a joke with its 3rd world attitude to everything that concerns the people, rather than looking to improve the country for the people.. 

 

Expats are getting screwed at every corner with constant changing visa requirements to stay legal in their temporary home, because goal posts are constantly changing.. Being asset rich with a quality house dwelling, a car and bike, but with a small pension will soon be told you are longer welcome here in Thailand.. TIT.. Rant over.. 

 

 

a lot of people probably die on their way to the hospital.  cars will not yield to ambulances here.  pathetic.  

Edited April 5, 2019 by malibukid

[fullcave]

We are approaching the end of the smog season in Thailand.