Thai authorities to clamp down on polluters as haze chokes Bangkok

[webfact]

Thai authorities to clamp down on polluters as haze chokes Bangkok

By Juarawee Kittisilpa

 

Buildings are shrouded in haze in Bangkok, Thailand December 15, 2020. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Bangkok on Tuesday introduced measures to tackle rising pollution, as concentrations of microparticles hit unhealthy levels in several parts of the Thai capital, shrouding high-rise buildings in a murky haze.

 

Air quality in the city of around 10 million people has deteriorated markedly in recent days, and authorities said large construction projects had been asked to halt and checkpoints were being set up to test vehicle emissions.

 

"It affects my daily life because every time I walk outside, my nose and neck feels irritated and when I cough, people get suspicious about whether I have COVID or not," said Bangkok resident Sarunya Poungsumdee.

 

The global Air Quality Index's level rose above the 151 threshold into the unhealthy category across the city on Sunday, data from monitor AirVisual showed.

 

While the pollution has eased slightly since, concentrations of PM 2.5 - tiny particles found in dust, soot and smoke that can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream - remained at unhealthy levels in 13 districts of Bangkok on Tuesday, the city's Air and Noise Pollution Management office said.

 

"My concern has just doubled," said another resident, Pasarawadee Tankanit, in reference to the pollution spike on top of the risk of catching the coronavirus, adding that residents could not simply afford to rely on the government.

 

Bangkok city spokesman Pongsakorn Kwanmuang on Tuesday also ordered schools to suspend outdoor activities and to close if they lacked sufficient air filtering, while a defence ministry spokesman said authorities would monitor factories.

 

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Ed Davies; editing by John Stonestreet)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-16

 

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[webfact]

Experts raise alarm on air pollution, urge government to update air quality index for vulnerable groups

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

Air pollution, especially in Bangkok, is worsening with the PM2.5 hitting dangerous levels in several areas.

 

In a press conference on Tuesday, Prof Dr Prasit Watanapa, dean of Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine, and Assoc Prof Nitipat Jiarakul, chief of Siriraj Hospital’s Division of Respiratory Disease and Tuberculosis, said it is necessary for the air-quality alarm system to be improved so people can protect themselves better. They also provided details on how minute particulate matter in the air can affect human health.

 

PM2.5 or particulate matter that is less than 2.5 micrograms in size and is created by car exhaust fumes, the burning of fields, construction and other substances created by agricultural processes. The amount of dust in the air usually rises during the cool season, though the PM2.5 levels depend very much on the sources, Nitipat said.

 

The main harmful components in air pollution are carbon, polycyclic hydrocarbons and heavy metals. When these substances enter the body, they cause severe inflammation and biological changes in the tissue from the nose to the lungs. This can result in nasal irritation, creation of mucus, sore throat and cough, as well as a higher risk of infections like pneumonia and even Covid-19, he explained.

 

People with chronic lung diseases like asthma and emphysema need to be particularly careful, he advised.

 

In the long term, air pollution can worsen the state of the lungs, and even cause emphysema among non-smokers as well as increase the risk of cancer because PM2.5 can enter the bloodstream and damage organs. It can also cause high-blood pressure, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and chronic kidney disease as well as many other conditions like diabetes, wrinkled skin, dry eyes, vision impairment, sexual dysfunction, etc.

 

Though the public is aware of the dangers of PM2.5, it is necessary for the government to step in and introduce strict measures to control the sources of dust pollution as well as provide better alerts for vulnerable groups.

 

Dr Prasit said the authorities should revise the air quality index (AQI) and create a colour code to provide warnings for people sensitive to dust. At present, the AQI only provides warnings when PM2.5 levels rise above 50mcg per cubic metre of air (μg/m3), which is the Thai standard. In comparison, the World Health Organisation sets safe levels at 25μg/m3.

 

Dr Prasit has suggested that alerts be provided when air quality drops to 37.5(μg/m3) to warn those who are sensitive to dust.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30399653

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-12-16

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

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[shdmn]

The story makes no mention of where the smog is coming from.  I know that illegal burning is supposedly a big contributor.  Is that where a lot of this is coming from? They can certainly do something about that. However, if a lot of it is exhaust fumes that is a much harder problem to solve.  You would have to do more drastic things like a lot of other cities have done like limit traffic into downtown in various ways and provide incentives for cleaner transportation.

[ourmanflint]

Have a feeling that this pollution is year round, but only visible during the cool season, something to do with the cold weather rather than increasing pollution patterns

[shdmn]

5 minutes ago, ourmanflint said:

Have a feeling that this pollution is year round, but only visible during the cool season, something to do with the cold weather rather than increasing pollution patterns

Nope.  Thailand has PM2.5 monitoring around the country. You can look up the readings in real time or near real time on the internet.  

 

http://aqmthai.com/web/main.php

 

This one show historical.

 

http://www.air4thai.com/webV2/history/

[ourmanflint]

It really does... the weather affects PM 2.5 concentrations

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019323323

[colinneil]

Here they go again, the yearly we will stop pollution nonsense, same every year, all talk but no proper action.

[Estrada]

"PM2.5 or particulate matter that is less than 2.5 micrograms in size". Once again, the Nation's reporter does not understand that PM2.5 refers to the size not the weight of the particles. The particles are 2.5microns (micrometers) in size of less. We refer to this as the particle cut off when we filter the air, water or other medium. When selecting a mask you need to look at the particle cut off in microns and not to the weight of the particle. The COVID-19 virons have a particle size of 0.12microns and an N95 mask has a particle cut off of 0.3microns. 

 

[pattayadude]

In mega cities like bangkok, there is air pollution every day of the week.It doesn't fluctuate, it's constant. What fluctuates however is air pressure and weather conditions. In a day of high-pressure system, the pollutants can't rise above and dissipate  because of air pressure and unhealthy air by midday turns into hazardous air by the afternoon.This isn't the case on a warm and breezy day

[mr mr]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai authorities to clamp down on polluters as haze chokes Bangkok

 

where can i report this as fake news ? didn't they open a hotline for that ? 

[pattayadude]

2 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

Have a feeling that this pollution is year round, but only visible during the cool season, something to do with the cold weather rather than increasing pollution patterns

that's right..it's a fact that pollution is increasing every year with increasing number of cars, population or whatever the source is that causes smog. But number one culprit for a hazardous smog day in a city is the high pressure and cold weather which locks the air and its pollutants in at a certain altitude and won't let it dissipate

[Destiny1990]

I guess they will spray with some water again to combat the polution ????????????

[Jimbo2014]

Any sane and normal country wouldnt wait for this madness to happen before they declare a "Crack Down".  Thailand has a reactive rather than pre-emptive mindset - by which time its way too late and then forgotten 2 weeks after.  The loss of reputation, tourism, foreign investment, expats leaving, damage to health, soil erosion from crop burning etc.. - its mindbogglingly stupid.

[Jimbo2014]

3 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

Have a feeling that this pollution is year round, but only visible during the cool season, something to do with the cold weather rather than increasing pollution patterns

 

The main cause of the dramatic increase is crop burning and you can time the pollution increase like a clock to the burning.  Weather cycles bring the burnt smog down to Bangkok and mix it with burning to the east and west and also the toxic mass of year round factory and car pollution.  The end result is nothing short of a modern apocalypse. 

[tonray]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

Here they go again, the yearly we will stop pollution nonsense, same every year, all talk but no proper action.

Yup...zero enforcement. I live in Nonthaburi and just across from our MooBaan are two rice fields...after each crop...yup you guessed it...they burn the stubble. Also the area has a few clothing/textile factories employing loads of immigrant laborers from Myanmar. They live in housing just outside the gates of the factories and use an open pit area across from the factory to burn their trash...what about the uber wealthy Thai factory owners paying for some trash pickup for their employees...yeah....then I woke up....nobody cares enough to stop making a few more baht..

[luk AJ]

1) stop field burning

2) increase BTS and MRT trains 

3) stop polluting vehicles, (start with the ones that visually produce smoke)

4) promote Electric Vehicles including motorcycles. Look at China

4 points, that's all to make this city healthy again...

[roquefort]

2 hours ago, Estrada said:

When selecting a mask you need to look at the particle cut off in microns and not to the weight of the particle. The COVID-19 virons have a particle size of 0.12microns and an N95 mask has a particle cut off of 0.3microns. 

 

Are you saying that an N95 mask is useless in protecting against Covid 19?

[klauskunkel]

Headline of an article that will never be written:

Thai Authorities useless in fighting Pollution

[Venom]

2 hours ago, pattayadude said:

What fluctuates however is air pressure and weather conditions.

What fluctuates is the crop burning season which is main driver for 2.5 PM air pollution in Thailand. Hua Hin has been far worse than BKK this week. Good kite surfing weather if only it were safe to go outside. It should be declared a national disaster. Instead the fires continue to burn and the government shifts the blame to "weather" or "trucks on outer ring road", in BKK? Yeah right. 

[Pilotman]

3 minutes ago, Venom said:

What fluctuates is the crop burning season which is main driver for 2.5 PM air pollution in Thailand. Hua Hin has been far worse than BKK this week. Good kite surfing weather if only it were safe to go outside. It should be declared a national disaster. Instead the fires continue to burn and the government shifts the blame to "weather" or "trucks on outer ring road", in BKK? Yeah right. 

there is some logic in what they say, as inversions at this time of the year trap low level pollution under the inversion layer. That is often Pattaya's problem, so worse in BKK. 

[jvs]

1 hour ago, luk AJ said:

1) stop field burning

2) increase BTS and MRT trains 

3) stop polluting vehicles, (start with the ones that visually produce smoke)

4) promote Electric Vehicles including motorcycles. Look at China

4 points, that's all to make this city healthy again...

Stop making sense!This is Thailand!

[sweatalot]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai authorities to clamp down on polluters

Yeah. That's the one thing to do. Enforcement. Arrest the burners. Prison time. 

 

The annual problem has been known for years. Nothing has been done except announcing their intent to do something. Like this time (I'm afraid) ...

[Bangkok Barry]

 

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai authorities to clamp down on polluters as haze chokes Bangkok

 

I read this in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and way back beyond that.

[Antonymous]

2 hours ago, roquefort said:

Are you saying that an N95 mask is useless in protecting against Covid 19?

 

What Estrada wrote seems to be correct.

At best, a mask may reduce the transmission of large respiratory droplets, but it does nothing to prevent the transmission of aerosolized particulates. And since SARS-CoV-2 has a diameter between 0.06 and 0.14 microns and N95 masks can filter particles only as small as 0.3 microns, I think we can figure this out.

Meanwhile, back on topic, let's hope that Thailand will follow Cambodia's lead in issuing a directive to stop crop burning and household garbage burning.

[Bangkok Barry]

37 minutes ago, Antonymous said:

let's hope that Thailand will follow Cambodia's lead in issuing a directive to stop crop burning and household garbage burning.

 

They do. Every year. But it's never, ever enforced.

[trainman34014]

'Clamping Down' means sweeping the matter further under the carpet !     Nothing will happen and nothing except the aforementioned will be done until it kills someone in a certain family.   But wait... they will be somewhere in a near pollution free country and well away from it !

[Poilu]

4 hours ago, tonray said:

Yup...zero enforcement. I live in Nonthaburi and just across from our MooBaan are two rice fields...after each crop...yup you guessed it...they burn the stubble. Also the area has a few clothing/textile factories employing loads of immigrant laborers from Myanmar. They live in housing just outside the gates of the factories and use an open pit area across from the factory to burn their trash...what about the uber wealthy Thai factory owners paying for some trash pickup for their employees...yeah....then I woke up....nobody cares enough to stop making a few more baht..

I fully agree. I live in the upper part of Nonthaburi province where we are surrounded by rice fields and they are alight at the moment.

[runamok27]

Looks like a lot of pollution is blowing in from China and Vietnam which Thailand can do nothing about. Don't misunderstand, Thailand is a major contributor but even if they weren't the air would still be bad. I don't believe it's the automobiles or the burning. Look at cities in America, millions and millions of cars and they are almost always green, very little to no PM2.5. If you looked at California during the massive forest fires and it only turned those areas yellow and sometimes a very light red. Massive areas of China are red to dark red and the same with Vietnam. 

 

Can clearly be seen here:

https://www.iqair.com/earth

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42666596

"Modern diesels essentially do not have a particulates problem," he says. "The filters clean up 99% of the particles. So long as they are not tampered with, they are very effective".

[newnative]

   I wish they would require a switch to electric motorcycles.  It would cut down on the pollution and the noise.

[natway09]

I have been listening to this twice a year for 30 years & they still have not figured it out. problem is that they catch a Poor farmer burning hs stubble & fine him but" mai mi satang"

Follow me down Bang na Trad for 15 KM & see hundreds of pickups & trucks  smokong like a chimney but nothing

will happen until they put dedicated  mufti police in the actual traffic to take them off the road, but they won't.

Maybe a rocket to the moon though