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Thailand's extreme air pollution: 'I feel sorry for my daughter'


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10 hours ago, SoilSpoil said:

Arrest people who burn garbage, farm land, leaves, forest for mushrooms? Not rocket science, is it?

And buring in Laos and Cambodia? It's everywhere throughout the region. Much of the current burning in the north appears to come from Laos. Current pm2.5 map:

image.png

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8 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

This morning in Chiang Mai it was PM2.5 readings of up to 429 

= AQI of 458 = Hazardous.

 

"Hazardous" begins at PM2.5 of 251.

In some areas it maxxed out at 500. I think that must be the limit of their pollution meters. That's horrendous and I expect a lot of people to be attending hospitals there with respiratory issues. PM 2.5 is very dangerous at these concentrations and can cause chronic illness. 

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54 minutes ago, mtraveler said:

I assume that by posting this you are making the argument that the pollution Northern Thailand is experiencing is coming from Northern Laos and Northern Myanmar.  Yes, there is higher concentration in Laos and Myanmar.  But is there data showing that all that bad air is coming to Thailand?  What percentage actually gets to Chiang Mai?   And, doesn't pointing the finger at our neighbors try to make the Thai people/government innocent, when you can clearly see on the map that there's more than enough red within our borders?   How about we clean up our house first, and then we can put pressure on our neighbors to do the same?

 

This is my 5th smoke season here, and by far the worst. And I promise, for the health of my lungs and my body, my last.  This is awful, depressing, and scary.   

You assume wrong. The idea of posting the map was to show where the major concentration of fires are i.e. Myanmar, Laos AND Northern Thailand. This is a cross border situation. Fairly sure that if there were no fires at all in Thailand and Myanmar and Laos continue to burn the situation in the North of Thailand would still be very bad due to the predominant wind direction at this time of year. 

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2 hours ago, SoilSpoil said:

Who cares about Laos or Myanmar?nDo uou think Chiang Rai is the only province with smog problems? There are hundreds of fires in Thailand, so lets focus on that first. 

But that doesn't fix the overall problem. As soon as as the wind changes, the pollution changes. In theory, you could reduce pollution in Thailang by drastically reducing burning, but that's just a theory and I highly doubt anything will happen. Poor people who must work outside suffer the most. But it is not poor people making policy decisions on this (from their air filtered air conditioned rooms). 

 

 

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12 hours ago, 4737 Carlin said:

It can't, or won't, be fixed. Here in CM a lot of the expats I know are in denial about this being a s*** place to live. I, for one, won't be living here this time next year.

Sorry you have to move but IMHO your the smart one

I mean it will not change anytime soon & health is the greatest wealth we have.

 

For those that stay & perhaps develop a respiratory illness or worse will they be kicking themselves or just say oh well

I knew the risk when I rolled the dice & now I pay the price

 

Not an easy choice & not everyone can even make the choice. But good on you for being honest with yourself

 

 

 

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On 4/1/2023 at 3:30 AM, mtraveler said:

So, again, I wonder what percent of our PM2.5 is a gift from other countries.  Any data you can share with me to prove how much smoke is actually coming from other countries would be much appreciated.  I'm happy to change my beliefs if there's some data to back it up.  For now, the data tells me: more fires in Thailand, more PM2.5.  (And again, this is not an attack; it's an attempt to seek out the truth.)

I remember more than one burning season in Phuket, when -- depending on wind direction -- visibility was less than 50 meters for days. All the pollution coming from quite far-away Indonesia, in that case it was burn agriculture to create palm oil farms. One might only imagine how much forest was and is lost every year through those practices.

 

However, the issue is not that there are not enough laws against it in Thailand. It is, as so many times, an issue of education. As somebody else mentioned, in Isaan (and I guess many other places in Thailand) it is the most natural thing for people to burn any kind of rubbish just behind their own house or for farmers to clear their fields.

 

The latter I actually understand, especially for small farmers without much mechanization: I have stood in front of large sugarcane fields with nothing but a machete in hand to clear out the razor-sharp, dried lower leaves all by hand to give the stalks light and room to grow. Not a fun job at all -- especially when many gruelling hours of work can be simply replaced by a lighted match. And, of course, I did it as an experience, not as a daily lifestyle, so I would never begrudge any of these farmers to work with the solutions they have available.

 

Those who do should think why sugar cane is even planted here, when they put the next spoonful of white stuff in their morning coffee.

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