Chiang Mai Air Quality and Pollution

[Ventenio]

3 hours ago, elephant45 said:

So now you can't drink the water, breath the air, and eat the toxic food.

"Up to 41% of popular vegetables and fruits sold at fresh markets and supermarkets have been found to contain toxic chemical residues above the safe level, according to an annual food test by the Thailand Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-PAN)". From BKK Post.

That's impossible, I see soo many vegans who say Thai produce is the best.  They take selfies with apples and mangoes and walk past the bar girls in the pollution next to the elephants and yell, "durian!!"  when you live on the "cheap," expect stuff to be bad.  Of course we would pay an extra 10 baht for safety, but nobody else would.  

[elephant45]

Ventenio, I appreciate your coarse sarcasm. I get it.

[Cheesekraft]

[SoilSpoil]

8 minutes ago, Cheesekraft said:

Good for tourism these numbers. 

[Dante99]

16 minutes ago, Cheesekraft said:

That is not at all representative of the readings for Chiang Mai.  Take your data elsewhere, we do not need misinformation here.

[saengd]

11 minutes ago, SoilSpoil said:

Good for tourism these numbers. 

How is it possible that a PM2.5 reading can be higher than a PM10 reading, PM2.5 is a subset of PM10?

[CGW]

2 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

That is not at all representative of the readings for Chiang Mai.  Take your data elsewhere, we do not need misinformation here.

Peoples like to ignore the fact that these readings are taken from areas that are bad, thats why they put them there, to see just how bad!, usually in areas where traffic is bad. I am outside UT, reading today is 37 outside the city, in the city it is 120, which one is correct? you have to use the information available in a responsible manner! There's enough "Drama" in life as it is!

[thooktong]

Problem is more or less wide spread now all over Thailand especially the wind is very weak as zero TODAY ! ????

[Cheesekraft]

1 hour ago, CGW said:

Peoples like to ignore the fact that these readings are taken from areas that are bad, thats why they put them there, to see just how bad!, usually in areas where traffic is bad. I am outside UT, reading today is 37 outside the city, in the city it is 120, which one is correct? you have to use the information available in a responsible manner! There's enough "Drama" in life as it is!

 

That was the worst reading in the city , but there are many spots over 160 and the lowest is 111. Traffic has nothing to do with it. The mountains are also totally invisible behind the blanket of grey death today ????

[Yom]

Hello, @ saengd,

I remember, particulate matter is a bit difficult to calculate...

One might find a lot of information here:

https://www.epa.gov/report-environment

 

Readings? - This might have been a bad representation or just a mistake.

I don't know.

But we all know, it's smoggy outside. Not everywhere, but almost everywhere in Thailand.

More or less.

 

And I don't understand what  Dante99

_{was writing. Just have a look at the actual screenshots.}

http://aqicn.org/here/

 

airvisual.com

 

 

[CGW]

1 minute ago, Cheesekraft said:

Traffic has nothing to do with it.

So when it is not burning season there is no pollution - interesting & different to everywhere else in the country.

[saengd]

Just now, Yom said:

Hello, @ saengd,

I remember, particulate matter is a bit difficult to calculate...

One might find a lot of information here:

https://www.epa.gov/report-environment

 

Readings? - This might have been a bad representation or just a mistake.

I don't know.

But we all know, it's smoggy outside. Not everywhere, but almost everywhere in Thailand.

More or less.

 

And I don't understand what  Dante99

_{was writing. Just have a look at the actual screenshots.}

http://aqicn.org/here/

 

airvisual.com

 

 

I did subsequently look into that issue and indeed it is almost not possible, except in laboratory conditions, for PM<2.5 to be greater than PM<10 since one is a subset of the other. In fairly recent times the PM <2.5 calculation was extrapolated from the PM <10 using a formula since many countries didn't have PM <2.5 measurement technologies which were very expensive.

 

BUT AQI tables involve ranges of numbers, because of this it is possible for AQI readings of PMs 2.5 and 10 to overlap which causes the anomaly.

 

 

[elephant45]

Has anyone else noticed that when you ck the AQI for Chiang Mai,  very quickly all the stations pop up with two that are purple (high) then those two quickly disappear? Then there you see quickly only two grey rectangular boxes. They are in town.

[elephant45]

There is also the issue of motorcycles with zero pollution control on them. So 4 MC's = one car with no emissions control. Please Japan.

[dcnx]

154 and climbing near Maya. What a shame.

[JimmyJ]

9 minutes ago, dcnx said:

154 and climbing near Maya. What a shame.

I'll see your 154 and raise to 164.

 

Old city near moat.

[Ventenio]

LOLOLOLOLOL.  Someone from UTAH is trolling??  Dude, you are at ALTITUDE, with wind, and Utah is NOTHING like Chiang Mai.  You know this, but maybe you forget since you are breathing good air.  The same with all of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho...go anywhere near this guy and you MIGHT get one high reading and act like it's the same as CM.   LOLOL.  Sure, we post 250, but we are sleeping in 150.  Every day, every week, for months.  This is not UTAH.   

 

hilarious.  

[vivid]

 

 

 

[thequietman]

On 1/18/2020 at 11:00 AM, CGW said:

UT,

 

Where is UT please?

[CGW]

17 minutes ago, thequietman said:

 

Where is UT please?

Udon Thani.

[mike787]

Q???  WHY Thais burn if it's bad?  No other option.

[sup3r1or]

When I went to bed yesterday (in Phayao) I noticed that my purifier seems to have struggled to get air below 30 even on nearly full blast. When I woke up I noticed its red and 120, something was up. Of course it was 234 outside today in Phayao and seems to be 190 atm. Schools still running, same as always. 

[Yom]

Here some more information.

 

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1143398-phrae-pm25-numbers-2020/

 

[cerox]

Why would schools not be open?

Cannot close a school for 5 months right?

[cerox]

On a serious note, the air purifier really has its limit if it is only one for a small room. As soon as we get above 200 AQI or even near it, I always notice as you said too.

This morning for the first time air purifier at 13-18 pm2.5 - usually at 2-3.

Will soon go out with a mask with a portable device, but funnily I do not even need to do that anymore when I see the air purifier struggling.

Curious how people manage here above 200 or 300 AQI. One air purifier is not going to make it.

[chingmai331]

When i go out and the reading is above 150, i wear two N95 masks.  Reminds me once in china, the girl asked me to use two condoms...hey, off topic.

[Forza2002]

Welcome to Chiang Mai... if the smog doesn't get you, there is now the additional danger of the Chinese flu... Govt. does S.F.A.

 

[Forza2002]

Forecast for the few days not good...

 

[Forza2002]

It would appear by the lack of posts that discussions on AQI have been put on hold in preference of the Wuhan Virus. January has been worse than last year, I hope that it isn't a sign of another bad year.

 

Before somebody says move, I can't. I bought my house, have a Thai wife and 3 kids happy at their school here in Chiang Mai unfortunately. I don't use facebook so don't know if there are discussions going on other websites regarding the AQI here in CNX.

 

[cerox]

I have been thinking about this a lot and been here since 2016. Was actually not here mostly during smoky season but observed from far away.

I cannot remember it being a big deal 2017, maybe 2-3 months of orange/red pollution. It is undoubtedly bad, but wasnt a big deal for me because I just travelled away. Same 2018, was 3 months but consistent - in one period and then over - easy to avoid and travel. 2019 very similar - yes much higher readings but one stretch of 3 months from about mid February to May 20th.

 

The issue I and many have now is that they do not stop. They have been burning since I came here in December. That makes it 6 months of burning if it lasts until mid/end May again.

 

If you cannot or do not want to move, there is nothing you can do apart from air purifiers, masks etc. It is understandable that you cannot just sell your house and go. I really hope that one day they solve it, because I do love this city so much, but all things have to come to and end. I have accepted that in the medium-term things will not change. Nothing will be done about the air pollution. Not saying this in a negative or bitter way, just the facts.

 

I am curious what changed and why they have so much to burn since 2019. 6 months consistent burning instead of 3 months before. So why so much more? I would be curious if anyone knows.

 

The reason why nothing will change is, because the majority of locals just does not care. Not talking about those who burn. Just normal people. Pollution is just no concern to them, again talking about the majority. Now they wear a mask because of the virus. Never seen anyone wear a mask before since December.