Thai Ministry proposes Clean Air Act to combat rising pollution crisis

[webfact]

 

The Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment (MNRE) is set to introduce a groundbreaking Clean Air Act to address the escalating air pollution concerns that have gripped the nation.

 

Police General Phatcharavat Wongsuwan, the Environment Minister, revealed that a draft of the bill is currently open for public feedback on the ministry’s website until November 13. Following this, on November 16, the proposal will undergo a comprehensive review by state agencies before being presented to the cabinet on November 21.

 

The primary objective of the proposed bill is to mitigate pollution and streamline administrative processes to combat this prevalent issue. The focus is to eliminate obstacles to dealing with smoke from forest fires, a persistent cross-border concern. It also aims to encourage collaborative efforts through a Public-Private-People partnership to alleviate air pollution.

 

Emphasising the fundamental right to clean air, Pol. Gen. Phatcharavat announced the establishment of the Centre for Air Pollution Mitigation (CAPM). The CAPM will release real-time daily pollution reports and will declare an emergency if the pollution crisis worsens, reported Bangkok Post.

 

by Bright Choomanee

Picture courtesy of thainews

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2023-11-06

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

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[PeterA]

Nothing on their website about feedback for this measure. Sounds like the same thing every year. Nothing ever happens.

[Bobthegimp]

48 minutes ago, PeterA said:

Nothing ever happens

 

"Climate" lockdowns by 2025.  If I'm wrong, I'll eat a bug.  If I'm right we will all be eating them. 

[PremiumLane]

43 minutes ago, Bobthegimp said:

 

"Climate" lockdowns by 2025.  If I'm wrong, I'll eat a bug.  If I'm right we will all be eating them. 

 

Now what social media and media sites are pushing this kind of conspiracy trope? Oh yeah, that would be the ones funded and supported by billionaires connected to the oil industries, funny that. 

[lordblackader]

They don't enforce the current laws, such as burning bans and it being illegal to start fires in national parks, protected forests and wildlife reserves. Unless they're actually going to try to enforce the new act, the new Clean Air Act is less useful than toilet paper. 

Edited November 6, 2023 by lordblackader

[Bobthegimp]

1 minute ago, PremiumLane said:

 

Now what social media and media sites are pushing this kind of conspiracy trope? Oh yeah, that would be the ones funded and supported by billionaires connected to the oil industries, funny that. 

 

Asean Now is the extent of my social media and I haven't watched traditional media since my hair was black. 

 

I love oil and anybody with an ounce of common sense should kiss the ground beneath their feet and show gratitude for the miracle of oil and petroleum products. 

 

 We wouldn't have a single modern convenience without it. No fertilizer, no mines, no EVs.  There wouldn't be flights to Thailand without oil, so we would miss out on this stimulating exchange. 

[BE88]

 

 

More bureaucrats on the new CAPM and the problem is solved, then divide the data by two or three and the pollution will decrease.

[connda]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The focus is to eliminate obstacles to dealing with smoke from forest fires,

You gotta arrest and prosecute the arsonists, which are generally villagers who set fires to clear the undergrowth so they can collect mushrooms. It's like Thai "Omertà." Everyone knows who is setting the fires but clam up because they benefit in the Rainy Season when the mushrooms grow. Mushroom collection is big business in rural Northern Thailand.  The reality is that they don't have enough low-paid forest service employees to stop the arson, and those same people are part of the villages themselves.  There would be massive social push-back on villagers working in the forest service who are doing their jobs attempting to stop the arson.

[Bobthegimp]

3 minutes ago, connda said:

You gotta arrest and prosecute the arsonists, which are generally villagers who set fires to clear the undergrowth so they can collect mushrooms. It's like Thai "Omertà." Everyone knows who is setting the fires but clam up because they benefit in the Rainy Season when the mushrooms grow. Mushroom collection is big business in rural Northern Thailand.  The reality is that they don't have enough low-paid forest service employees to stop the arson, and those same people are part of the villages themselves.  There would be massive social push-back on villagers working in the forest service who are doing their jobs attempting to stop the arson.

 

The mushroom angle is new to me, but there are reasons and benefits beside mushrooms.  The people who burn the crops are likely the farmers themselves. 

 

https://arkansascrops.uada.edu/posts/fertility/residue_burning.aspx

[connda]

28 minutes ago, PremiumLane said:

Now what social media and media sites are pushing this kind of conspiracy trope?

As we have found out since 2020, conspiracy theory leads conspiracy fact by a few months to a few years.  The term "conspiracy theory" is a pejorative aimed to shut-down any discussion regarding a subject except for the Authoritarian so-called authoritative narrative.

[connda]

7 minutes ago, Bobthegimp said:

 

The mushroom angle is new to me, but there are reasons and benefits beside mushrooms.  The people who burn the crops are likely the farmers themselves. 

 

https://arkansascrops.uada.edu/posts/fertility/residue_burning.aspx

There is an incorrect assumption that rice farmers burn their fields.  Here in my corner of Northern Thailand, nobody burns their fields.  Ox gaze the fields and corn and rice stubble is cut and sold.  Everything else is plowed under come Rainy Season.

However, sugar cane is a different story.  So is the Big Ag supported corn growers who plant the denuded mountains in Mae Hong Song.  They do burn and it's freaking terrible as far as AQI.

Edited November 6, 2023 by connda

[Bobthegimp]

1 minute ago, connda said:

There is an incorrect assumption that rice farmers burn their fields.  Here in my corner of Northern Thailand, nobody burns their fields.  Ox gaze the fields and corn and rice stubble is cut and sold.

However, sugar cane is a different story.  So is the Big Ag supported corn growers who plant the denuded mountains in Mae Hong Song.  They do burn and it's freaking terrible as far as AQI.

 

Thanks, I've yet to spend time in the agricultural regions of the country yet and don't know about their practices.  The air pollution I know all too well. 

[webfact]

Samut Prakan has the world’s 9th worst air quality

 

 

Bangkok’s neighbouring province of Samut Prakan has been ranked having the world’s 9th worst air quality. The place has not enjoyed a single day of good air quality in 12 months, according to House Fresh, a publication focused on air quality.

 

House Fresh offers advice on how to tackle air pollutants in the home through how-to guides, product reviews, advice and original research on a variety of factors that affect indoor air quality.

 

House Fresh said on its website that it had analysed data of air quality indices in the world’s cities and ranked each of them, with the worst being at No. 1.

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2023-11-06

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

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[edwinchester]

1 hour ago, connda said:

There is an incorrect assumption that rice farmers burn their fields.  Here in my corner of Northern Thailand, nobody burns their fields.  Ox gaze the fields and corn and rice stubble is cut and sold.  Everything else is plowed under come Rainy Season.

However, sugar cane is a different story.  So is the Big Ag supported corn growers who plant the denuded mountains in Mae Hong Song.  They do burn and it's freaking terrible as far as AQI.

Absolutely different to the rice farmers in the Central Plains as almost to a man they burn off the stubble. Couple that with sugar cane burning and come dry season the air quality is appalling.

[chilli42]

Why has this taken so long … just to get to the point of “proposes”. 

[Tarteso]

Just Charlatans 

[Tom H]

So how do they want to change the temperature inversion?

Stop 🔥:).

Good that they monitor “only PM2.5”.

Never heard any CO2 levels in Bkk in media 😉

Edited November 6, 2023 by Tom H

[spidermike007]

Police General Phatcharavat Wongsuwan, the Environment Minister. 

 

This says all we need to know. They just continue appointing ministers from the utmost bottom of the barrel, with no experience in their respective fields, people who lives are so full of corrosion and moral ambiguity that even if they wanted to, they would be utterly incapable of accomplishing something like this. 

 

Instead, The government should offer incentives, for the farmers to switch crops. This is 2023. Rice and sugar worked in previous centuries. Now, they do not make any sense. Too labor intensive, too much degradation of the land, water, air, and resources. Let's get with the times. Let us move forward. 

 

When the crop burning starts to kill the population, and lowers the quality of life for those of us who don't die, isn't it time to take action? We just don't need the sugar. Shut down this toxic, heinous industry. Lock up the sugar barons. Do whatever it takes. 

 

 

A while back they had campaign where they had posters with phone numbers that you could call to report vehicles that were polluting. We were driving and we saw this truck that was pumping out huge black clouds of smoke and I copied down their license plate and I dialed the number, and handed my phone to my Thai wife and ask her speak to the department. She asked the person who answered the phone what can they do? He ask my wife why are you calling us and she said, well you have phone numbers posted to report polluting vehicles? The guy said well I don't know who I would report it to, and she said well that's not really our issue is it? You're supposed to be monitoring polluting vehicles. He said OK, I'll give me the license plate number and I'll see what I can do. My wife said are you going to do anything? He said, I don't know I need to look at the regulations first and see who I'm supposed to report it to, and then maybe somebody will do something. 

 

 

[garzhe]

This is a problem in Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar & Laos. Pollution does not respect borders. I would have thought it would have been a good idea to bring up the problem in the past with ASEAN when they meet and party every year in alternate countries. Thailand will never solve the problem alone.

[klauskunkel]

5 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Police General Phatcharavat Wongsuwan, the Environment Minister. 

and Prawit's brother

[koele2]

Somebody higher up with lots of money always lets it be known that their interests will be affected if they stop the burning in certain areas, so the authorities let it go and crack down on some poor farmer.  And so we breathe the same polluted air every year so some billionaire families can make their profits and the cops get their picture taken with a lowly farmer with the headline of cracking down on pollution.  

[TheFishman1]

Yeah, yeah they’ve been saying the same thing for years the Air  in Chiangmai for 4months is unbelievable really bad TIT

[LukKrueng]

First they have to come with a solution for the burning. How about serious rubbish connection and treatment all over Thailand? Then connection and treatment of agricultural waste such as branches after harvesting and trimming of trees? Once they have these services rubbing all over Thailand, then seriously implement the burning bans

[PremiumLane]

3 hours ago, Bobthegimp said:

 

Asean Now is the extent of my social media and I haven't watched traditional media since my hair was black. 

 

I love oil and anybody with an ounce of common sense should kiss the ground beneath their feet and show gratitude for the miracle of oil and petroleum products. 

 

 We wouldn't have a single modern convenience without it. No fertilizer, no mines, no EVs.  There wouldn't be flights to Thailand without oil, so we would miss out on this stimulating exchange. 

 

At no point did I say oil was bad, or that it didn't drive industrialised nations. As for the first part, sure, buddy 🙂 

[PremiumLane]

3 hours ago, connda said:

As we have found out since 2020, conspiracy theory leads conspiracy fact by a few months to a few years.  The term "conspiracy theory" is a pejorative aimed to shut-down any discussion regarding a subject except for the Authoritarian so-called authoritative narrative.

 

No it isn't, cos real conspiracies do come out - crackpot ones stay as being crackpot. 

[hotchilli]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

The Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment (MNRE) is set to introduce a groundbreaking Clean Air Act to address the escalating air pollution concerns that have gripped the nation.

Joke time again.

[TigerandDog]

3 hours ago, connda said:

There is an incorrect assumption that rice farmers burn their fields.  Here in my corner of Northern Thailand, nobody burns their fields.  Ox gaze the fields and corn and rice stubble is cut and sold.  Everything else is plowed under come Rainy Season.

However, sugar cane is a different story.  So is the Big Ag supported corn growers who plant the denuded mountains in Mae Hong Song.  They do burn and it's freaking terrible as far as AQI.

you must be in a very unique part of Northern Thailand because the part of Northern Thailand I'm in they burn everything, rice stubble, corn stubble, tree cuttings. Nobody is interested in ploughing in or composting. The ONLY thing that gets ploughed in is the BURNT rice or corn stubble.

[Purdey]

It is a surprise that with 10 years of military rule and many more years of Thaksin rule that not one of the ding dings thought of having a clean air act. 

[Big Bert]

I was out for a nice bike ride peddling round Soi Siam CC and Maprachan area.
The amount of battered old pick up trucks and tipper wagons screaming engines and spewing clouds of black smoke is beyond a joke. Laws already in place to combat this but as usual no one cares.
Earlier this year files smouldering away for days, burn off the verges and general rubbish. Where is the enforcement? Until people are hit financially they really just do not care then this clown comes along with his wonderful ideas 🙄

I'm off to get my lungs scraped out from all the black gunk.....

Edited November 6, 2023 by Big Bert

[Zack61]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

a draft of the bill is currently open for public feedback on the ministry’s website until November 13. Following this, on November 16, the proposal will undergo a comprehensive review by state agencies before being presented to the cabinet on November 21.

A comprehensive review done in a few days? Not sure how comprehensive it’s going to be considering the 18th and 19th are the weekend. I don’t think they are too concerned about air quality at all. They just want to give the appearance of doing something. 
Comprehensive????? 555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555