PM2.5 count hits 462 in Chiang Rai

[Destiny1990]

These grumpy retirees always finding something for to complain about. ????

 

[hotchilli]

17 hours ago, webfact said:

The Pollution Control Department recorded 462mcg in Chiang Rai province and 361mcg in Mae Hong Son.

Is that an oxymoron?

[Venom]

Is there big money in destroying the environment and poisoning children? What's this racket worth? 

Interesting times when breathing becomes hazardous to your health. 

[FarangRimPing]

350 right now outside my house (on a hilltop) in Mae Yao, Amphur Muang.

[johnny49r]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

 

The Pollution Control Department recorded 462mcg in Chiang Rai province and 361mcg in Mae Hong Son.

It seems the Pollution Control Dept has no control, only reporting. And in typical fashion, they are working hard to assign blame elsewhere. 

You know what you have to do - just get out there and do it!

[spidermike007]

There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease. So here is what I propose-

 

1. Fine the farmers 5,000 baht for a first offense, and give them a stern warning, that burning is now prohibited, and the second fine will be very harsh.

2. For a second offense, fine the farmer 100,000 baht, and warn them that if the burning continues, their land will be confiscated.

3. On the 3rd offense, confiscate their land. Period. No questions. No legal proceeding or appeals on the part of the farmers. Allow others to come in and purchase the land at a fair price, with the caveat that sugar is prohibited as a crop to be grown on that land. 

The news would travel faster than the toxic smoke, and farmers would change their ways overnight, and move into the 21st century. 

 

Then they can move on to tackle the sale of diesel vehicles, and the government's enthusiastic support of such. It is inane in this day and age. Most nations are moving away from diesel for good reasons. When they are not well maintained, they foul the air, with large, nasty particles. And who properly maintains their vehicle here? Same applies to diesel generated power plants. Beyond inane. PM counts above 200 KILL people. The hospitals are jammed with people that have massive respiratory issues. And what is being done about it?

 

Here is the bottom line. Either you are a serious administration, or you are not. Either you care about your people and want to implement long standing polices that improve the nation, the environment, and the air, or you don't. Either you are real men, or you are incompetent boys. We all know the answers to that. We are talking about the Thai army. A hapless and thoroughly incompetent organization if there ever was one. 

 

[thequietman]

15 hours ago, xtof2 said:

You're all get it wrong !

Minister of Public Health, our friend Anutin, was in Chiang Mai yesterday.

That's why it's getting much worse.

Must be all that sulfur. ????

[spidermike007]

11 minutes ago, thequietman said:

Must be all that sulfur. ????

Why be so unkind to him? He obviously loves us. He also has a very kind and generous heart, a very open mind, and an overwhelmingly benevolent spirit. He is practicing his teachings! And he is such a competent health minister too.

[AsterixThai]

IIQA is air quality index is based on the measurement of particles (PM2.5 and PM10), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide 2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and carbon monoxide (CO).
It is not the amount of PM 2.5.

[Brickbat]

Lunatics choose to live here. Me included! Time to rethink.

[Brickbat]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease. So here is what I propose-

 

1. Fine the farmers 5,000 baht for a first offense, and give them a stern warning, that burning is now prohibited, and the second fine will be very harsh.

2. For a second offense, fine the farmer 100,000 baht, and warn them that if the burning continues, their land will be confiscated.

3. On the 3rd offense, confiscate their land. Period. No questions. No legal proceeding or appeals on the part of the farmers. Allow others to come in and purchase the land at a fair price, with the caveat that sugar is prohibited as a crop to be grown on that land. 

The news would travel faster than the toxic smoke, and farmers would change their ways overnight, and move into the 21st century. 

 

Then they can move on to tackle the sale of diesel vehicles, and the government's enthusiastic support of such. It is inane in this day and age. Most nations are moving away from diesel for good reasons. When they are not well maintained, they foul the air, with large, nasty particles. And who properly maintains their vehicle here? Same applies to diesel generated power plants. Beyond inane. PM counts above 200 KILL people. The hospitals are jammed with people that have massive respiratory issues. And what is being done about it?

 

Here is the bottom line. Either you are a serious administration, or you are not. Either you care about your people and want to implement long standing polices that improve the nation, the environment, and the air, or you don't. Either you are real men, or you are incompetent boys. We all know the answers to that. We are talking about the Thai army. A hapless and thoroughly incompetent organization if there ever was one. 

 

Well said! Now to find a party with some balls and half a brain to implement

[spidermike007]

8 minutes ago, Brickbat said:

Well said! Now to find a party with some balls and half a brain to implement

Thanathorn to the rescue. He is about the only person capable of leading this nation forward, in this time of crisis. The need to get rid of the hapless army gets greater by the day. 

[xylophone]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease.

I am not a farmer, so I may be well off track here, but there has to be another way and one I have thought of is...... 

 

There are very large machines which can scrape the top layer of soil, including the sugarcane stalks, direct them into a mulcher and spread the result back on the ground again, helping to till the soil and improve the quality of it.

 

The government could cease buying old tanks and submarines and buy a few thousand of these for stationing in provinces where sugarcane is grown, and they could be hired by the local farmers, or indeed provided free of charge.

 

And before anybody says that there is too much sugarcane planting to enable this to happen, I urge them to look at the huge grain harvesters which are deployed across the vast plains in the USA and across several states in Australia. So if this can be done, then mulching of sugarcane stalks and soil should be very doable.

 

If someone was serious about this, then it could be done, but whilst there is a government which really doesn't care about anything apart from itself and ways that it can skim money from deals such as buying submarines and tanks, not to mention fighter planes, then nothing will happen.

 

A government for and on behalf of the people would be nice, but this government is for and on behalf of itself and the wealthy, so things won't change.
 

[Aspaltso]

I've been living in Siem Reap the last few months, and we've had some pretty bad AQI days over there i.e 150 or so. There's no doubt that if there is a prevailing breeze blowing east then a lot of blame falls on Thailand's neighbour to the east.

[PumpkinEater]

Just think if we put as much EFFORT (from fear) into the pollution/road deaths problems as we do the flu virus (mass hysteria) how much better off we would be...

Everyone that thinks a Paper mask will magically save them from pollution or flu viruses are living in denial...

 

Lets get a grip people! 
lets all get together and work on these “real” problems!

[Venom]

Warning: 538 right now! ???? stay TF indoors people! 

[KC 71]

8 minutes ago, Venom said:

Warning: 538 right now! ???? stay TF indoors people! 

Yes,it’s really shxte at the moment !

[motdaeng]

18 minutes ago, Venom said:

Warning: 538 right now! ???? stay TF indoors people! 

sorry, but to stay indoors does not make a  real different ... 

[thequietman]

25 minutes ago, Venom said:

Warning: 538 right now! ???? stay TF indoors people! 

Satellite images show fires currently being lit all over Thailand, and still the 'government' do Nothing! Sickening.

[thequietman]

6 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

sorry, but to stay indoors does not make a  real different ... 

My air filter would disagree with you I'm afraid.

 

Currently 16 AQI in my bedroom. ????

[motdaeng]

7 minutes ago, thequietman said:

My air filter would disagree with you I'm afraid.

 

Currently 16 AQI in my bedroom. ????

i do agree with you, an air purifier is the only solution ...

 

[saengd]

6 hours ago, thequietman said:

Satellite images show fires currently being lit all over Thailand, and still the 'government' do Nothing! Sickening.

The following was a real eye opener for me personally and I've been following this problem for twenty years:

 

 

[RubbaJohnny]

On 3/14/2020 at 9:45 AM, spidermike007 said:

There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease. So here is what I propose-

 

1. Fine the farmers 5,000 baht for a first offense, and give them a stern warning, that burning is now prohibited, and the second fine will be very harsh.

2. For a second offense, fine the farmer 100,000 baht, and warn them that if the burning continues, their land will be confiscated.

3. On the 3rd offense, confiscate their land. Period. No questions. No legal proceeding or appeals on the part of the farmers. Allow others to come in and purchase the land at a fair price, with the caveat that sugar is prohibited as a crop to be grown on that land. 

The news would travel faster than the toxic smoke, and farmers would change their ways overnight, and move into the 21st century. 

 

Then they can move on to tackle the sale of diesel vehicles, and the government's enthusiastic support of such. It is inane in this day and age. Most nations are moving away from diesel for good reasons. When they are not well maintained, they foul the air, with large, nasty particles. And who properly maintains their vehicle here? Same applies to diesel generated power plants. Beyond inane. PM counts above 200 KILL people. The hospitals are jammed with people that have massive respiratory issues. And what is being done about it?

 

Here is the bottom line. Either you are a serious administration, or you are not. Either you care about your people and want to implement long standing polices that improve the nation, the environment, and the air, or you don't. Either you are real men, or you are incompetent boys. We all know the answers to that. We are talking about the Thai army. A hapless and thoroughly incompetent organization if there ever was one. 

 

Your intention and method would work if there were real laws and real enforcement.

In reality important people are immune and little people will just bribe or it'd become a scam to get land of others below market price or export fungi, there's always corruption holding peple back.

 

While of course there shold be efforts for public health some, not all of the pollution emanates in LOS (Land of SMog)  some across borders, which means concerted action. If we can see it on satelites so can the same militias who grow/eradicate other crops.Expect a crackdown on foregn smoke /smokers annoince.

 

Reality is the rich don't care the law is not for them, or bent and the little local enforcer in the field can be paid off. It was always thus and in 30 years I've seen no improvement and the example from the "watchmen" is alas do what you can get away with.If you can rig an entire system smoke fines are easy.

 

Meanwhile LOS is a hub for inaction.

[HashBrownHarry]

On 3/14/2020 at 2:32 PM, thequietman said:

My air filter would disagree with you I'm afraid.

 

Currently 16 AQI in my bedroom. ????

Do you never go out?