AQI meters are rigged

[NorthernRyland]

Yeah sorry I call BS on this. All those locations are all at 500 even? No way. I see this all over the north, it goes to 500 and stops. 

 

[soi3eddie]

They need better AQI meters!

 

[doctormann]

Maybe 500 is the top of the calibrated range so anything higher just tops out at that value?

[NorthernRyland]

8 minutes ago, doctormann said:

Maybe 500 is the top of the calibrated range so anything higher just tops out at that value?

Other areas are over 500 outside of Thailand so it's not the website itself.

 

I'm reading 220 PM 1.0 360 PM 2.5 460 PM 10 right now in Mae Jo. I didn't research how the AQI is calculated but I think that's higher than 500. 

 

I have a house in Samoeng but it's wooden and not possible to run air purifiers so I'm not going up there at the moment but I've noticed they routinely shut off their meters. I know it's way over 500 up there in the mountains.

 

 

Same story in Pai. I have family there and know the area well. The smoke is far worse than CM at these times of years. No way it's only 500.

 

 

So yeah I'm alleging a nation wide conspiracy to rig the AQI monitoring in order to promote tourism.  Not a far reach in my opinion.

 

[Celsius]

31 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

Yeah sorry I call BS on this. All those locations are all at 500 even? No way. I see this all over the north, it goes to 500 and stops. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

[Marcous]

If you click on one of those saying 500 it will give you the actual reading.

 

This was from a few days ago.

 

 

 

 

[NorthernRyland]

17 minutes ago, Marcous said:

If you click on one of those saying 500 it will give you the actual reading.

 

This was from a few days ago.

 

Yes I'm seeing that for SOME of the locations. Thanks. There's still funny business going on here though.

[VocalNeal]

There are a couple on here higher than 500????

 

[clokwise]

They are not rigging the meters, this is just some bug in the reporting. 

 

However - there is evidence showing that the municipal government is parking large water misting trucks near AQI monitoring points. Everyone knows these trucks have no benefit whatsoever and only affect the air within a few meters of the truck. So why do they do this, and why place them at specific points that just happen to have an AQI monitor?

[brommers]

I asked a young degree holding Thai friend about these mist spraying trucks and his response to what were they achieving was " it is science"! Seems to me the accusation about rigging should be on educators who feed their students all kinds of trash science behind which government officials can hide from reality.

[stoner]

21 minutes ago, brommers said:

it is science

it is science. wouldn't the misters clean the air around the meters enough to give a better reading...even though a few feet away reality is right there ? 

[connda]

I doubt it.  Right now the surrounding countries are burning the stubble from the crops that Big Ag provides for farmers.  They'd be burning the corn stubble off the mountains in Mae Hong Son if there wasn't a burn ban.
We've seen this before as Big Ag privatizes the profits and socializes the pollution and the CO2. 

[connda]

1 hour ago, VocalNeal said:

There are a couple on here higher than 500????

 

An hour later.

 

[nigelforbes]

1 hour ago, NorthernRyland said:

Yes I'm seeing that for SOME of the locations. Thanks. There's still funny business going on here though.

The only funny business is your conspiracy theory, which is just hilarious. A nationwide coordinated effort to not show AQI numbers over 500, in order to preserve tourism.......now I've heard it all!.

[KhunLA]

2 hours ago, clokwise said:

They are not rigging the meters, this is just some bug in the reporting. 

 

However - there is evidence showing that the municipal government is parking large water misting trucks near AQI monitoring points. Everyone knows these trucks have no benefit whatsoever and only affect the air within a few meters of the truck. So why do they do this, and why place them at specific points that just happen to have an AQI monitor?

Richard Barrow reported on his Twitter blog, that his schools meter was showing bad AQI #s, and the around the corner Govt meter was showing good AQI #s.   So curious, he strolled over to see what was up, and sure enough, they had a misting fan positioned over their meter ... ????

[watchcat]

5 hours ago, NorthernRyland said:

Yeah sorry I call BS on this. All those locations are all at 500 even? No way. I see this all over the north, it goes to 500 and stops.

That's how far their meters  go. The real results you'll feel in your lungs,  Send the hospital bill to the governor.

[VocalNeal]

2 hours ago, stoner said:

it is science. wouldn't the misters clean the air around the meters enough to give a better reading...even though a few feet away reality is right there ? 

Insects can fly in the rain so I doubt large droplets of water effect PM2.5

[NorthernRyland]

1 hour ago, watchcat said:

That's how far their meters  go. The real results you'll feel in your lungs,  Send the hospital bill to the governor.

As reported some of the locations show a higher value if you click on them. That suggests the website is not presenting the information properly.

[NorthernRyland]

3 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

The only funny business is your conspiracy theory, which is just hilarious. A nationwide coordinated effort to not show AQI numbers over 500, in order to preserve tourism.......now I've heard it all!.

My little meter I have is able to measure values higher than 500. I don't believe there's don't go that high.

 

Then explain why the numbers stop at 500? Are suggesting the Thai authorities wouldn't tamper with data in order to present a false narrative? They do this constantly with tourism numbers so I don't see why it's so crazy to think they're not being fully honest with the air quality.

[NorthernRyland]

3 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Richard Barrow reported on his Twitter blog, that his schools meter was showing bad AQI #s, and the around the corner Govt meter was showing good AQI #s.   So curious, he strolled over to see what was up, and sure enough, they had a misting fan positioned over their meter ... ????

I haven't even gone into the numbers which are just wrong and randomly too low. Those are all over the place too. What's interesting to me is they have capped the numbers at 500. I don't know how the information is taken from the meters but they may be reporting them manually for all I know and have been instructed to not enter higher than 500.

 

Does anyone know how the numbers are reported to the public and arrive on the internet? That would be good to know. 

[NorthernRyland]

5 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

There are a couple on here higher than 500????

 

Thanks I didn't see that earlier. None the less the prevalence of 500's is suspect. If this was a tax audit they would call out those uniform numbers as being suspect also. Maybe one or two but that many should put up red flags.

[VocalNeal]

I don't think more than 500 is suspect. I simply live here. What the numbers are is irrelevant to me.

[nigelforbes]

9 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

My little meter I have is able to measure values higher than 500. I don't believe there's don't go that high.

 

Then explain why the numbers stop at 500? Are suggesting the Thai authorities wouldn't tamper with data in order to present a false narrative? They do this constantly with tourism numbers so I don't see why it's so crazy to think they're not being fully honest with the air quality.

A reading of 500 is so far above the WHO maximum safe limit that it makes no sense whatsoever to suggest government might be using that as some sort of limit, so as not to deter tourists. Why not 190 or 235, that might conceivably have a positive affect on attitudes. And the idea that people would accept that somehow, magically, a whole bunch of different areas around CM suddenly have an AQI reading of exactly 500, do you realize what that would do to the lottery ticket trade, ticket sellers would be swamped with demand for tickets containing 500! ????

 

A nice round number is likely to be a system limitation in some area I would imagine, why look for outlandish and far fetched conspiracy theory solutions when there are simple easily explained once staring right at you.

[NorthernRyland]

2 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

A nice round number is likely to be a system limitation in some area I would imagine, why look for outlandish and far fetched conspiracy theory solutions when there are simple easily explained once staring right at you.

The problem is the uniform numbers which are clipped at 500. That suggests it's reaching some limit and we're not getting the real numbers. Sure maybe it's not tourism related but the data is not being reported accurately and that's the problem.

[Bill97]

26 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

the data is not being reported accurately and that's the problem.

Only for those who choose it.

[nigelforbes]

48 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

The problem is the uniform numbers which are clipped at 500. That suggests it's reaching some limit and we're not getting the real numbers. Sure maybe it's not tourism related but the data is not being reported accurately and that's the problem.

Again, it's a system flaw or limitation, I guess they didn't expect to get readings that high.

[NorthernRyland]

35 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

Again, it's a system flaw or limitation, I guess they didn't expect to get readings that high.

Ok I actually did some research and found this. Appears there may be a maximum on some systems? Not all though as pointed out that some did read over 500. 

 

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/500-what-a-maxed-out-aqi-means/story-Zg0gUMnSKCZKEAu0iry62J.html

 

“Not much has been studied as to what happens after we reach an AQI of 500. Health impacts plateau after a certain point. There is not much point in monitoring beyond that,” the scientist added.

So you're most likely correct and I retract my nation wide conspiracy allegation....for now.... ???? 

[K2938]

The AQI in the U.S. where this whole thing was first invented is only defined until 500, presumably because people did not imagine that values would go higher:

 

(https://www.airnow.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/aqi-technical-assistance-document-sept2018.pdf)

[creative1000]

On 4/5/2023 at 11:54 AM, brommers said:

 

I asked a young degree holding Thai friend about these mist spraying trucks and his response to what were they achieving was " it is science"! Seems to me the accusation about rigging should be on educators who feed their students all kinds of trash science behind which government officials can hide from reality.

 

Weird, cause every Thai I’ve spoken to knows the water spraying is a scam designed as a clever photo opportunity.

[Enoon]

On 4/5/2023 at 5:54 AM, brommers said:

I asked a young degree holding Thai friend about these mist spraying trucks and his response to what were they achieving was " it is science"! Seems to me the accusation about rigging should be on educators who feed their students all kinds of trash science behind which government officials can hide from reality.

He doesn't believe what he told you.

 

He was just doing his bit, as a good patriot, to defend the "reputation" of Thailand.

 

Everything you get from a Thai passes through that "filter".

 

Never mind the particles, it's the omnipresent, choking miasma of servitude to that ideology that is the real "threat to life" in Thailand.