Chiang Mai Air Quality and Pollution

[moe666]

I guess that will be the endof high season as the tourist will head to the south, no pollution there

[dcnx]

43 minutes ago, Forza2002 said:

Where can I find this historical graph?

[moe666]

44 minutes ago, Trujillo said:

Now or last April, when the air had a lot more body, I never felt any different physically. No different from any other time, anywhere else. It's really just a visual thing. If you didn't see well, you'd never notice. 

 

Could this be Darwinism at work here in CM? If you have a weak constitution, perhaps you will be driven out, leaving the splendors of the city and environs to the strong, like me. 

 

>..<

Last year was the first I have ever worn a mask because of the smoke, thats ten years. It was a hell of a lot worse last year, peddale fake news else where

[Tarteso]

Next week we’ll moving to the beach, until end of april... bye bye Chiang Mai ????

 

[dcnx]

59 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

I used to do just that, open doors and windows under the false premise that I would enjoy clean air coming in, now with the help of my little (new) friends, the SNDWAY PM2.5 detectors, one inside and one outside, I can make a judgement call, i.e. if the particulate matter PM is 35ug/m3 or under I will open the place up, particularly if there is no smell of smoke, although the reading should be 12ug/m3 or less for the air to be considered at a good level, or 12.1ug/m3 to 35.4ug/m3 to be considered to be in the moderate range, over that the place is locked up.

 

The air purifier I also purchased does a great job in clearing the PM2.5 with it's Hepa filtration, for example the other morning it was over 50ug/m3 inside, "unhealthy" and I turned it on and it brought the level down to 9ug/m3, and we can certainly smell the difference in the air quality.

 

The above said, I don't like living in a bubble, e.g. 90% of the world is polluted, noting that Thailand is up there, but not as bad as India, China and the likes as I have read, but when I look at what the reading is back in my home country, I say to myself, what were you thinking making the move and why did you miss such an important part, i.e. south-east Asia is so polluted and these clowns in the government have no real concept on how to tackle the problem, except by saying spray water into the air or don't burn incense, I must have been delusional to think that the country air here would be good for me.

 

The above said, if it gets worse and by me monitoring it and trying preventative measures, like having an air purifier, detectors, N95 masks, and that fails, then plan B has to come into play, bye bye Thailand as my health is more important than allowing this smoke from lawless people burning their rice and sugarcane fields at night while no one does anything about it.

  ????

I hear you. After almost 20 years here, we will be leaving later in the coming year. Our health is too important and there is no end in sight to the pollution. Immigration is becoming increasingly difficult as well. There are too many options out there to continue swimming upstream in a country hell bent on killing itself (via every way possible) and making it difficult for us to stay. It’s simply time to move on.

[dcnx]

9 minutes ago, moe666 said:

Last year was the first I have ever worn a mask because of the smoke, thats ten years. It was a hell of a lot worse last year, peddale fake news else where

You must be talking about the official burn season last year. That doesn’t start for a few more months. Being this bad in December is troubling.

 

Side note, you should wear the mask more. The air is usually bad here, it’s just not this bad.

[dcnx]

3 hours ago, sfokevin said:

Today we look like a suburb of China... 

(Note we also outrank them...)

 

Technically, I think that’s what we’ve become. 

[saengd]

Diary of an expat in Chiang Mai:

 

November to December - bitch about the cold nights

January to May - bitch about the heat and the pollution

June to September - bitch about the heat and the rain

October - enjoy

 

 

 

[4MyEgo]

13 minutes ago, dcnx said:

I hear you. After almost 20 years here, we will be leaving later in the coming year. Our health is too important and there is no end in sight to the pollution. Immigration is becoming increasingly difficult as well. There are too many options out there to continue swimming upstream in a country hell bent on killing itself (via every way possible) and making it difficult for us to stay. It’s simply time to move on.

I also hear you, and don't think I am too far behind you because I have kids and looking at the pollution situation, don't want them exposed to any unnecessary PM2.5 readings when it can be avoided by implementing simple measures, which IMO from the lowest to highest level are inept of carrying out.

[Samuel Smith]

31 minutes ago, dcnx said:

Where can I find this historical graph?

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/hpc-1/

 

choose your aqi station & scroll down to bottom of page

[Vacuum]

38 minutes ago, bubba said:

Chiang Mai is currently at #9

Just give them some time, and they'll be the leader of the pack, same as last year.

[dcnx]

14 minutes ago, Samuel Smith said:

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/hpc-1/

 

choose your aqi station & scroll down to bottom of page

Thank you 

[sfokevin]

37 minutes ago, saengd said:

Diary of an expat in Chiang Mai:

 

November to December - bitch about the cold nights

January to May - bitch about the heat and the pollution

June to September - bitch about the heat and the rain

October - enjoy

 

 

 

It’s not like we can go out and play golf... 

[Trujillo]

...moved up to No. 8, now....

[Marc666]

Reading a recent article on BBC Future lntroduced a whole new dimension to my understanding of pollutants.It did make pretty depressing reading,but showed it is a worldwide issue,not only in areas with visible pollution or high PM 2.5 reading.

In short,current PM2.5 meters are ineffective in measuring pollution as they don't count the very smallest particles-nanoparticles,which recent research suggests are a much larger cause of illness & death.In addition,there is a lot of misinformation out there.Contrary to belief,most PM2.5 cannot pass through the lungs into the blood,Also NOx gases,eg nitrogen dioxide,only account for 14% of deaths due to air pollution.

The biggest killer never makes the news,isn't regulated or measured.Nanoparticles are microscopic compared to PM2.5.For example,a cloud of a billion nanoparticles has the same mass as one PM10,and a combined surface area one million times larger.Nanoparticles generally originate from combustion engines in cars etc,so this surface area comes coated with toxic,unburnt fuel from vehicle exhausts.Once inside the body this large surface area means more toxicity as it passes into the blood and is in touch with a greater surface area in the body.An experiment conducted along the Marylebone Road in London resulted in a shocking measurement due to the traffic.The nanoparticles easily pass into the bloodstream and can affect any organ.

A low PM2.5 reading on a government website or app can therefore give a false impression of clean air.There are no legal limits or emission reduction targets for nanoparticles.The Euro 6 test goes some way,but still doesn't cover 30% of nanoparticles.The good news is that nanoparticle numbers correlate with NOx readings.So reduced exposure to combustion engines reduces nanoparticle exposure,either by not living or being close to busy roads,or having electric vehicles.

Ironically,being a Chiang Mai resident and being exposed to the burning season seems to be less harmful than living close to heavy traffic.

[donnacha]

26 minutes ago, Marc666 said:

The good news is that nanoparticle numbers correlate with NOx readings.So reduced exposure to combustion engines reduces nanoparticle exposure,either by not living or being close to busy roads,or having electric vehicles.
 

Ironically,being a Chiang Mai resident and being exposed to the burning season seems to be less harmful than living close to heavy traffic.

The bad news is that, although sometimes called the burning season, what we are actually breathing is a toxic mashup of all the emissions trapped in this massive valley by low pressure, including diesel traffic from as far away as China, some of it decades old.

So, even if you live far from roads, and are surrounding by rural Thais farmers happily burning crops and plastic, all those diesels emissions from the rest of this massive area are constantly circulating in the air you breath.

Thanks for posting about this, very interesting, I was able to find a link for the article you referred to:

 

The toxic killers in our air too small to see

 

Other recent research on the impacts of air pollution - including cardiac, neuropathic (stroke), pulmonary, diabetes, arthritis, even depression - have led me to believe that many people living in Chiang Mai because it is supposedly cheaper are storing up incredibly expensive medical problems for the future. This is an unprecedented experiment on human beings.

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by donnacha

[CNXexpat]

Your text would be much easier to read if you would use empty lines. 

 

Some more facts about your topic here: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-the-PM2-5-and-AQI-measurements/answer/Thomas-Talhelm?ch=10&share=618285fc&srid=2QXl

[Dante99]

12 minutes ago, donnacha said:

This is an unprecedented experiment on human beings.

That is called life.

[donnacha]

1 minute ago, Dante99 said:

That is called life.

Only by the sort of broad definition that defines anything that happens to human beings as "life".

That does not mean we should not attempt to avoid things that harm us, especially once we become aware of the extent of the damage.

[Banana7]

US AQI in Pattaya is now 122 at 15:00 December 28. Chiang Mai is 165!

[donnacha]

17 minutes ago, Banana7 said:

US AQI in Pattaya is now 122 at 15:00 December 28. Chiang Mai is 165!

Sure, but HQI (Herpes Quality Index) in Pattaya is far higher than Chiang Mai ????
 

[Forza2002]

Congratulations Chiang Mai in making into the top ten, and it's only December. No doubt you will get into the top 5 in the coming months. Who knows you may get the coveted No.1 spot. You should be so proud...

[cerox]

299 - very easy to break that one soon.

But it just rained. Too bad, they must be furious now - this will require even more burning next night to stay at the current level. You can do it, I believe in you.

[elektrified]

184 in Sansai at the moment.

[elephant45]

through the roof. What's happenig wing to to this town?

[elektrified]

Not through the roof just yet, but unusually high for this time of year. AQI where I live has been 150-160 for 5-6 weeks now. Beginning yesterday it has jumped to 170-190. I have already dug out the N95 masks earlier today. Truly disappointing.

 

There was one theory that made sense to me since I did notice the levels went up at night, was that people are burning to stay warm; especially people who live in mountain villages. In fact all around me at properties where groundskeepers live on the grounds taking care of empty homes, I see them all burning at night. But today the levels were already going up to 184 by 10:00 so.

[Bassosa]

Most of the cities in that top 10 support tens of millions people each and have huge industrial complexes that form the backbone of their respective economies.

 

What's Chiang Mai's excuse for being in that list?

 

 

[Samuel Smith]

5 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

Most of the cities in that top 10 support tens of millions people each and have huge industrial complexes that form the backbone of their respective economies.

 

What's Chiang Mai's excuse for being in that list?

 

 

Not wanting to upset ignorant, uneducated peasants?

[Puchaiyank]

It's all good...!  ????

[Knocker33]

No wonder health insurance is compulsory on some visas. There are going to be quite a few with respiratory problems in the future