Air pollution soars in Thai capital, authorities issue warning

[snoop1130]

Air pollution soars in Thai capital, authorities issue warning

By Jiraporn Kuhakan

 

FILE PHOTO: The sunset in Bangkok on a poor air quality day in the Thai capital, January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Authorities in Thailand’s capital warned people to wear face masks or stay indoors on Thursday after choking air pollution returned to Bangkok following months of clear air in one of the world’s top tourist destinations.

 

The national Pollution Control Department issued the warning as the amount of hazardous dust particles known as PM 2.5 exceeded the safe level in three areas around the capital.

 

PM 2.5 is a mixture of liquid droplets and solid particles that can include dust, soot and smoke, one of the main measures of the Air Quality Index (AQI).

 

Thursday morning’s AQI was 170, according to airvisual.com, which measures levels in cities worldwide.

 

The AQI is considered “unhealthy” when the level is above 150, meaning there is an “increased likelihood of adverse effects and aggravation to the heart and lungs among the general public”, according to airvisual.com.

 

No cause was given for the deterioration in the air quality, which tends to get worse in the dry season from December to April.

 

Residents in the city of about 10 million complained about the air quality and problems such as asthma and allergies.

 

“Something is wrong with my health because I’m suffocating as I breathe,” said Pitak Meesopa, a 58-year-old minibus driver who said that in the past year he had been suffering with an allergy and had to wear a mask frequently.

 

“My eyes are always in pain and itchy,” he said.Air pollution forced the closure of some schools in Bangkok earlier this year and Thailand’s northern provinces, including Chiang Mai, were hit by dangerous levels of dust particles in April.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-19

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[whaleboneman]

I’m sure Prayut will give them one week to clean the air.

[MaxYakov]

Yes according to RTAQ it was "unhealthy - red" (but not hazardous - purple) from 7 AM through 10 AM Thursday.

 

How many people do you see wearing masks (a small percentage)? How many people do you see wearing actually effective masks (not ineffective medical/surgical masks)? The air pollution is killing the residences of Bangkok and their children and the reasons for that is the same reason they're not wearing masks - like with a lot of things - they just don't care.

[mstevens]

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

choking air pollution returned to Bangkok following months of clear air

 

Where do they get this "following months of clean air" from?

 

I monitor the air quality index in Bangkok every day and it has been in and out of the orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) and red (unhealthy for everyone) for weeks....

Edited December 20, 2019 by mstevens

[nobodysfriend]

If Thai government would be clever , they would do everything to produce Electric vehicles in Thailand now . Just simple , low cost EV's that can go 2 or 3oo km on a charge would be enough to reduce the toxic air quality and would be a huge step foreward for Thailand right into the future mass market of EV's .

The chinese will do it anyway , but Thailand will definitly be left behind if there are no incentives NOW .

[phantomfiddler]

We are destroying the cities ! All vehicles emitting noticeable smoke should be sent to the knackers yard. When you look around and see 30% of the people around you wearing pollution masks one wonders about where we are heading ????

[edwinchester]

Not just Bangkok. Air quality out in rural Kanchanaburi is dreadful right now and has been all year except for a few weeks during rainy season.

[legend49]

19 minutes ago, mstevens said:

 

Where do they get this "following months of clean air" from?

 

I monitor the air quality index in Bangkok every day and it has been in and out of the orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) and red (unhealthy for everyone) for weeks....

They can buy cans of mountain fresh air from other unpolluted countries, LOL.

[Cadan]

Cant be that difficult to decide to use Electro / Hybrid /Nitrogen cars in motorbikes, trucks etc. but guess the $$$ loss on petrol and auto industry would be too substantial. We know alternatives are available but it wont fill the pockets as fast

[mickey rat]

Thailand is a lovely retirement option and a great place to raise your children you'll just need to stay indoors and wear pollution mask for the rest of life. What more could you ask for? 

[mickey rat]

4 minutes ago, Cadan said:

Cant be that difficult to decide to use Electro / Hybrid /Nitrogen cars in motorbikes, trucks etc. but guess the $$$ loss on petrol and auto industry would be too substantial. We know alternatives are available but it wont fill the pockets as fast

Can't be that difficult to get them to stop burning everything in sight. But alas, it's a cultural thing and part of what it is to be Thai. 

Edited December 20, 2019 by mickey rat

[pkf]

If they would stop spraying us with aluminum, barium , & strontium it would help.

[Knobby37]

Maybe too many ecigs causing the problem, while cigarette smoke only goes straight up

[Dustdevil]

You have to take serious measures, not just issue warnings and have conferences about it. An example is the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1963. Pittsburgh used to be like Beijing at its worst; LA wasn't far behind. Yet now US air is generally cleaner than Western European (because nobody bought diesel-powered cars, which have raised havoc with the air over European cities. Coal is, of course, going the way of the dinosaurs, and Trump, anti-environmental pig that he is, won't be in office forever. In places like Thailand and Malaysia the head of state pretty much decides his/her own term length.)

Edited December 20, 2019 by Dustdevil

[SoilSpoil]

This is not only a problem in Bangkok, all the surrounding provinces are smokey. Just check the horrible air quality numbers of , Sam Roi Yort, Hua Hin or Pattaya. Main reason? Hundreds of fields on fire in the provinces around the city polluting the central part of Thailand (for weeks already).

 

Let's call a spade a spade: Thailand is suffocating because millions of its residents are burning anything they can get their hands on without any consequence. Law enforcement is a joke.

 

 

[Dustdevil]

39 minutes ago, mickey rat said:

Can't be that difficult to get them to stop burning everything in sight. But alas, it's a cultural thing and part of what it is to be Thai. 

Not only Thai--Indonesians are choking the whole world.

[Zack61]

It’s not just a Thailand phenomena. It is a worldwide problem which requires actions other than the ostrich approach. 

[johnny49r]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

air pollution returned to Bangkok following months of clear air

Which months were those? 

[4MyEgo]

Looks like they are still burning incense when they were told last year to cut down on burning incense ????

 

Why not give everyone a water spray gun to spray in front of them when walking, that should solve the problem ????

 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that all the burning around the country travels, it does not disappear, yet they allow it to go on, well what do they expect, to keep covering up all the BS, som nom nah !

 

 

 

[johng]

1 hour ago, nobodysfriend said:

If Thai government would be clever , they would do everything to produce Electric vehicles

Just yesterday the news about a new tax on EV batteries...that's how clever this "government" is !!!

[johng]

5 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

Looks like they are still burning incense when they were told last year to cut down on burning incense

Yesterday was sports day at my grand daughters school..its next to a temple the monks decided it would be a good day to have a huge bonfire  with billowing thick black acrid (plastics) smoke for the kids to breath in all day !!  ????

[samsensam]

 

what about the, much heralded, 'clean air machine' outside central world? the phrases 'publicity stunt' and 'white elephant' spring to mind...

 

 

[unamazedloso]

Thai people are ignorant not to be wearing masks. They have thebidea that their parents and parents parents burned farms and forests so they can do it. Well they are probably dead now and so will everybody else. The factor is population grow people!

Im a farmer and can say there is no need but every year i am forced to clear and burn to protect my property from the idiots that burn the forests that borser my property and these people are only doing so for a few hundred baht of reselling bamboo. They say its to stimulate grow of bamboo but thats not true at all because bamboo is not a grass thats activated like this. Ita only purpose is to get rid of prickly trees and and such to make it easier to get to. So pathetic!

Authorities are all morons here and they do nothing. 

All my neighbouring farmers are getting ready early this year to burn sugar cane. Cant wait for the black chemically laced snowfall....

[PeteDaKat]

1 hour ago, Cadan said:

Cant be that difficult to decide to use Electro / Hybrid /Nitrogen cars in motorbikes, trucks etc.

Nitrogen? Nitrogen doesn't burn. It is an inert gas making up nearly 80% of the air we breath.

[ExpatOilWorker]

39 minutes ago, SoilSpoil said:

This is not only a problem in Bangkok, all the surrounding provinces are smokey. Just check the horrible air quality numbers of , Sam Roi Yort, Hua Hin or Pattaya. Main reason? Hundreds of fields on fire in the provinces around the city polluting the central part of Thailand (for weeks already).

 

Let's call a spade a spade: Thailand is suffocating because millions of its residents are burning anything they can get their hands on without any consequence. Law enforcement is a joke.

 

 

Pattaya is in for a bad few days over the weekend, just hit play.

 

https://www.windy.com/-PM2-5-pm2p5?cams,pm2p5,2019122201,11.566,100.415,6

[4MyEgo]

14 minutes ago, johng said:

Yesterday was sports day at my grand daughters school..its next to a temple the monks decided it would be a good day to have a huge bonfire  with billowing thick black acrid (plastics) smoke for the kids to breath in all day !!  ????

Tell me about it, I saw the same thing at my kids school, it was done behind the school, in the school grounds, I mean how thick can you be.

 

I have the IQAir AirVisual app on my iPhone which I downloaded of late to monitor the air quality where the kids go to school and around our place, and if it's not good, they will have a day/days at home, I don't give a rats, and come burning season if it was as bad as last year, we will relocate for a couple of months where the air is clearer, if there is such a place and I will bare the cost for our kids health.

 

If it keeps getting worse, then plan B will go into action, straight back to the old country, but that's burning badly with bush fires of late so no escaping the smoke atm ????

 

[unamazedloso]

17 minutes ago, johng said:

Yesterday was sports day at my grand daughters school..its next to a temple the monks decided it would be a good day to have a huge bonfire  with billowing thick black acrid (plastics) smoke for the kids to breath in all day !!  ????

Yeh, my kids school use the temple as a carpark to drop off and pick up kids and a place to buy snacks before and after school and its exactly the same thing everyday with burning plastic in leaves and such morning and night. Absolutley disgusting behavior and inexcusable.

[NoBrainer]

1 hour ago, nobodysfriend said:

If Thai government would be clever , they would do everything to produce Electric vehicles in Thailand now . Just simple , low cost EV's that can go 2 or 3oo km on a charge would be enough to reduce the toxic air quality and would be a huge step foreward for Thailand right into the future mass market of EV's .

The chinese will do it anyway , but Thailand will definitly be left behind if there are no incentives NOW .

 

Electric vehicles will not work in Bangkok. That 300km range turns into 30km really fast, when sitting in traffic for hours at a time with Air Con, Stereo, TV's and Phone Chargers Ect. running full tilt, and going nowhere. Chaos will quickly ensue when the batteries start running out of juice in the middle of traffic, and you are nowhere near home, or a non existent charging station. The current power grid is also almost always maxed out, and uses a substantial amount of coal to produce it.

 

Wait another year or two, until the batteries in all these hybrid vehicles currently on the road start failing. These giant batteries are costing over a million baht for some models to get replacements. They are classed as dangerous goods, so shipping cost is more than double that of normal freight, dealers do not keep stock due to the high cost, and they take 6-8 weeks to get here by sea freight, which is also expensive. Technicians are scared to work on them, because of the high risk of massive electric shock as well.

 

The dealers are already seeing the problems, and are changing back to selling diesel, instead of hybrid. The market is becoming more informed, and rejecting electric cars.

 

[Winky Wilson]

Come one, come all and bring that gas mask. If your from India or China this is good air quality.

[johng]

15 minutes ago, PeteDaKat said:

Nitrogen? Nitrogen doesn't burn. It is an inert gas making up nearly 80% of the air we breath.

Maybe Hydrogen would work better.