Toxic Air Quality In Thailand Does The Thai Government Plan To Do Anything?

[actonion]

Late last year the Thai  Prime Minister   attended a  Gobal warming meeting in Scotland promising the world he will do something about the bad air quality in Thailand.....just wonder  when he will start ..

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, actonion said:

Late last year the Thai  Prime Minister   attended a  Gobal warming meeting in Scotland promising the world he will do something about the bad air quality in Thailand.....just wonder  when he will start ..

I thought they started with stopping and turning old vehicles back going into Bangkok.

Only heard from bro in-law he can only use his new truck for going into Bangkok not old one he usually uses for work.

[fusion58]

Quote

Toxic Air Quality In Thailand Does The Thai Government Plan To Do Anything?

Ha ha ha! Good one! ????

 

Not unless there's money in it.

[Lorry]

On 3/3/2023 at 9:54 AM, racket said:

I'm amazed that TAT hasn't issued any advisory recommendations to discourage travel to these areas, given the hazardous smoke levels, especially in Chiang Mai.

Most of tourists in CM are Chinese.  They would complain if the air wouldn't be of the quality they are used to.

[Lorry]

On 3/3/2023 at 1:03 PM, chilly07 said:

prefer burnt cane as this accelerates sugar and mollases  production and harvesters prefer burnt cane as its easier to cut by hand. 

As we all know, Yinglucks corrupt government subsidized rice.

The honest and incorruptible government that followed subsidized sugar cane, because they wanted to do away with the rice schemes.

So, within a few years Thailand became (from a low base) one of the biggest sugar producers worldwide. 

We breathe the results. 

You can't really expect this same government to prohibit harvesting the sugar cane they promoted in the most profitable way?

[Lorry]

14 hours ago, Celsius said:

Do these air filters really help that much? I know when I turn on my xiaomi it all looks nice and dandy and the digital indicator shows healthy air, but when I wake up in the morning I still feel stuffy and generally bad.

I have the same problem. 

I am going to buy an external meter from Xiaomi, my air purifiers are from Hatari.

A friend has a Xiaomi external meter, the results are in line with the websites  (aqicn, iqair) and with the visibility of the air.

 

[Lorry]

13 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Told to keep mask on when outside by Doc.

The unspeakable four-letter word,  not an option for people from the Land of the Free!

[Celsius]

Another ,*** day. Thanks Thailand!

[Kwasaki]

9 hours ago, Lorry said:

The unspeakable four-letter word,  not an option for people from the Land of the Free!

Have no idea what you are trying to say, Doc in hospital giving advice is what his job is I guess to someone who is Asthmatic. 

[Kwasaki]

9 hours ago, Lorry said:

I have the same problem. 

I am going to buy an external meter from Xiaomi, my air purifiers are from Hatari.

A friend has a Xiaomi external meter, the results are in line with the websites  (aqicn, iqair) and with the visibility of the air.

 

I'm after a air purifier for our bedroom so you have found Hatari a good buy. 

[Kwasaki]

12 hours ago, fusion58 said:

Ha ha ha! Good one! ????

 

Not unless there's money in it.

Don't think they will put money anyway, many poor farmers in Sukhothai so if you did give them money to plough in and not burn they would burn still. 

The forest areas have burns as well to stop large forest fires. 

 

To police farmer wouldn't do any good either. 

Sukhothai was bad air twice a year at burn seasons 20 years ago but at night no more clear skies anymore.

Air reading very unhealthy over 200 yesterday 192 today so far.

 

 

[Northstar1]

On 3/6/2023 at 8:40 PM, brewsterbudgen said:

Yes, of course I can imagine that!  It might be strange to you, but there are tens of thousands of foreign or mixed Thai/foreign families living in Thailand!   Where do you suggest they go if their jobs, families are here?

Perhaps to a country destination where their children can grow up without being subjected to deadly air quality?

but perhaps some peoples children aren’t that important?  
lots of jobs around the world for professionals!

thete had never been a time for such demand!

Unless we backed ourselves into a corner with no plan b?

nasty situation to be in, now isn’t it Brew?

????????

[Kwasaki]

240 in Muang Kao (old sukhothai) this morning.

Have a nice run around the historical park.

[brewsterbudgen]

8 hours ago, Northstar1 said:

Perhaps to a country destination where their children can grow up without being subjected to deadly air quality?

but perhaps some peoples children aren’t that important?  
lots of jobs around the world for professionals!

thete had never been a time for such demand!

Unless we backed ourselves into a corner with no plan b?

nasty situation to be in, now isn’t it Brew?

????????

Indeed it is, although "nasty" isn't the word I'd use.  We moved out of Bangkok, but where we live now is currently almost as bad.  I'm too old now to move to another country and getting visa for my (Lao) wife would be difficult even if we wanted to.  Going to our home in Laos isn't much better in terms of air quality, and I wouldn't be able to work as easily there nor would the quality of eduction for my son be as good.  

 

I appreciate your concern, which I'm sure is genuine.  However like tens of millions of other people who are raising their family in Thailand I'll put up with it.  

 

[Moonlover]

On 3/3/2023 at 1:03 PM, chilly07 said:

The only thing  they can do is to fund farmers cooperative ownership of harvesting and bailing machinery. When I first visited Thailand rice was harvested by hand but now rice farmers use machines.  The same is possible for sugar cane but the processors prefer burnt cane as this accelerates sugar and mollases  production and harvesters prefer burnt cane as its easier to cut by hand.  Processing companies should be made to inventivise the collection of unburnt cane using crushed pulp to fire their boilers and harvesters should have access to bailing machines.  It worked with rice and will work  with sugar cane.

I can't speak about sugarcane as we do not have any in our area. (thank goodness) But there has been a big move toward mechanization on the farms around here and stubble burning has been much reduced in the period that we have been living here (around 7 years)

 

And the results speak for themselves. The green dot is Sakon Nakhon and that is now a regular occurrence hereabouts, with a rise into 'unhealthy' and beyond being very rare. So it can be done. Where there's a will, there's a way.

[RickR]

I really need to check the proper research on this and see where the yearly trend is. I remembered just hearing how bad Thailands air quality was back a few years ago. Now it went from very bad to dangerous levels and thats not just in one area but the Central/North/Northeast part of Thailand. Whats going to be interesting to see is how bad will it get next year? 5 years from now? 10 years?

 

One option is to perhaps consider moving towards the South. The air quality does affect all of Thailand but its much tamer in the South. Just checked Surat Thani/Phuket and way better than central and the sticks

[mrwebb8825]

The government regularly schedules elections at this time of the year in hopes that the VAST amount of hot air spewing forth will raise the altitude of the pollution and the upper jet stream will blow it on to other countries.

In other news: The current government has a secret contract with "Hoover" to build a "SuperSucker" that, when mounted to aircraft, will clean and filter the air in hopes of diminishing the need for multiple future elections.

[DudleySquat]

The Thais are fantastic at planning!  

 

They never do anything. 

 

Pfft!

[CALSinCM]

On 3/3/2023 at 10:57 AM, orchis said:

TAT wants more tourists everywhere regardless of health hazards, they are the prime allies of the tourism industry.

They'll make the smog a tourist attraction.  They can rent double priced gas-masks to foreign tourists (Ok 10x what a Thai will pay).  ????

[kwilco]

On 3/3/2023 at 2:02 AM, orchis said:

March and the first week of April are statistically the worst.
Half of the fires are in protected forests. 35% in "reserved forests".
Government in denial, people getting sick.
 

Forest fires make a significant contribution to the "haze". ...there have even been some papers that try to deflect the responsibility away from crop burning but they may well have vested interests to influence them.

There are also those who try to mitigate the effects of rice burning.

The fact is that sugar and rice and forestry are the main culprits, but there are thousands of small enterprises contributing to the haze that should and could be prevented.

BTW forest fires are man made too. Backburning is one source but at this time of year burning is used by mushroom collectors to help the culture of highly lucrative mushroom cropping.

For whatever reason not only do these fires contribute  to the haze but they often get out of control and major forest fires ensue.... they are not usually the result of "lightning", they are rotten started by rangers hoping to get a little more income.

I've witnessed several man made fires in national parks in the last few weeks .

 

This haze is now dramatically affecting tourism in the Northand central Thailand....it is almost  a closed season...... as tourism potentially contributes more to the Thai economy than agriculture and the alternatives will benefit both, itcan only be government ignorance that prevents them from introducing aid, subsidies and other measures to minimise the disruption.

[nigelforbes]

1 minute ago, kwilco said:

Forest fires make a significant contribution to the "haze". ...there have even been some papers that try to deflect the responsibility away from crop burning but they may well have vested interests to influence them.

There are also those who try to mitigate the effects of rice burning.

The fact is that sugar and rice and forestry are the main culprits, but there are thousands of small enterprises contributing to the haze that should and could be prevented.

BTW forest fires are man made too. Backburning is one source but at this time of year burning is used by mushroom collectors to help the culture of highly lucrative mushroom cropping.

For whatever reason not only do these fires contribute  to the haze but they often get out of control and major forest fires ensue.... they are not usually the result of "lightning", they are rotten started by rangers hoping to get a little more income.

I've witnessed several man made fires in national parks in the last few weeks .

 

This haze is now dramatically affecting tourism in the Northand central Thailand....it is almost  a closed season...... as tourism potentially contributes more to the Thai economy than agriculture and the alternatives will benefit both, itcan only be government ignorance that prevents them from introducing aid, subsidies and other measures to minimise the disruption.

I would argue that sugar, maize and forestry are the culprits, not rice. There are at least three rice harvests each year, two of them don't create pollution on the current scale.  Pollution from crop burning is a problem at this time of year, because of the volume of burning but importantly, because of thermal conditions.

[kwilco]

10 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

I would argue that sugar, maize and forestry are the culprits, not rice. There are at least three rice harvests each year, two of them don't create pollution on the current scale.  Pollution from crop burning is a problem at this time of year, because of the volume of burning but importantly, because of thermal conditions.

Yes, same old cliche.

Actually 3 harvests a year are not the rule. Maize has been shown not to have a great contribution.

There is a rice lobby trying to minimise their responsibility and deflect attention from their burning.

However the big problem arises from when burning takes place and its coincidence with the cool dry season. Rice does most of the harvesting then.

The government has fir a long time tried to discourage multiple rice cropping as not only does it increase green house gas emissions at other times of the year, it affects water supplies and damages wildlife in catchment areas. 

The thing is that burning is not only not necessary it isn't good agricultural practice. If they desist and use other methods, everyone would be better off. It isn't just a Thailand problem, see how countries with dimilar crops and a more organised agricultural system deal with it.

[kwilco]

On 3/9/2023 at 8:43 AM, brewsterbudgen said:

Going to our home in Laos isn't much better in terms of air quality

Laos is as bad and going to get worse...check this year's figures for Luang Prabang

[nigelforbes]

12 minutes ago, kwilco said:

Yes, same old cliche.

Actually 3 harvests a year are not the rule. Maize has been shown not to have a great contribution.

There is a rice lobby trying to minimise their responsibility and deflect attention from their burning.

However the big problem arises from when burning takes place and its coincidence with the cool dry season. Rice does most of the harvesting then.

The government has fir a long time tried to discourage multiple rice cropping as not only does it increase green house gas emissions at other times of the year, it affects water supplies and damages wildlife in catchment areas. 

The thing is that burning is not only not necessary it isn't good agricultural practice. If they desist and use other methods, everyone would be better off. It isn't just a Thailand problem, see how countries with dimilar crops and a more organised agricultural system deal with it.

My house sits on the edge of thousands of acres of rice fields in Mae Rim, they stretch as far as you can see and beyond, the irrigation klong that feeds that land runs through our garden. Back to back rice crops is the name of the game here and NONE of the residue is EVER burned, it's all ploughed under. The fact is that rice chaff doesn't have time to dry out sufficiently well, to be burned, that's because the ground is needed to be flooded for the next crop. Rice seedling nurseries are started ion adjacent land at just the right time, this means that as one crop is harvested, the next is ready to plant one foot high plants, it's like a military timed operation, quite impressive..