Pattaya Air Pollution

[LarryLEB]

At 10:00 a.m. this morning (January 16), Pattaya's air quality was the worst in Thailand.  According to IQAir, the reading was 153.  From the same source, the pm2.5 concentration was 59.4  µg/m³, of which the site states:     "PM2.5 concentration in Pattaya is currently 11.9 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value."  

 

We have 2 air purifiers we use in our sitting room/kitchen/dining room area (about 70 square meters).  When they were opened this morning, they read the PM2.5 in that area as 30  µg/m³  they now read about 10, and will continue to decrease.  At night each of our 2 bedrooms has one air purifier running and can keep the PM2.5 below 3 or 4.

 

 

[bbko]

With no rain in months, the air if filled with dust.  No wonder some still wear a face mask.

 

Anyone up for a rain dance? 

[scubascuba3]

Yes was bad this morning, could smell it in the air, 162 at 6.30am, now 131, suck it up

Edited January 16 by scubascuba3

[Denim]

Must be the friction smoke from all the condoms in use down there. Stop sex...breath easy.

[MrJ2U]

19 hours ago, LarryLEB said:

At 10:00 a.m. this morning (January 16), Pattaya's air quality was the worst in Thailand.  According to IQAir, the reading was 153.  From the same source, the pm2.5 concentration was 59.4  µg/m³, of which the site states:     "PM2.5 concentration in Pattaya is currently 11.9 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value."  

 

We have 2 air purifiers we use in our sitting room/kitchen/dining room area (about 70 square meters).  When they were opened this morning, they read the PM2.5 in that area as 30  µg/m³  they now read about 10, and will continue to decrease.  At night each of our 2 bedrooms has one air purifier running and can keep the PM2.5 below 3 or 4.

 

 

 

It's almost time for us to break out the air purifiers as well.  We use them at night in the bedrooms.

 

If your going to live in South East Asia, air purifiers are a good investment. 

[Simon1287]

19 hours ago, LarryLEB said:

At 10:00 a.m. this morning (January 16), Pattaya's air quality was the worst in Thailand.  According to IQAir, the reading was 153.  From the same source, the pm2.5 concentration was 59.4  µg/m³, of which the site states:     "PM2.5 concentration in Pattaya is currently 11.9 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value."  

 

We have 2 air purifiers we use in our sitting room/kitchen/dining room area (about 70 square meters).  When they were opened this morning, they read the PM2.5 in that area as 30  µg/m³  they now read about 10, and will continue to decrease.  At night each of our 2 bedrooms has one air purifier running and can keep the PM2.5 below 3 or 4.

 

 

Excellent! I lived in South Pattaya for many years and had two purifiers going 24/7 year round as well as 3M Filtrete on the AC units. 

On really bad air pollution days I could open an outside door and actually smell the pollution in the air. A kind of dirty, oily, industrial smell. 5 minutes outside and I could no longer smell it, as could pretty much no one else ever as they had no purifiers to give them respite from the 24/7 body killing pollution. Even on days as bad as that my apartment had really fresh, clean smelling air thanks to the two purifiers.

I finally gave up on living anywhere north of Surat Thani this time of year and in fact now only visit Thailand at all between about May and September. It's a shame it has to be those months as they are the best weather here in the UK but after so many years in Pattaya breathing in crap and rapidly approaching the age of 70 I am UK based for now and will visit Thailand anytime as and when the mood takes me outside of the polluted "killing season". After much research into the effects of air pollution before I finally gave up on Thailand full time I stand by my description of it.

If I want to get on a plane tomorrow and go live in Thailand again I can but really, you are welcome to it for a while yet.

I will say that if you live in Pattaya etc etc and you don't have at least one air purifier going full blast at the moment then you are, without any doubt whatever, one sandwich short of a picnic.

Hatari do a cheap and really good purifier. Only 3000-4000 Baht I think. The filters are cheap enough and very easy to get both the purifier and replacement filters in Pattaya or online. I had two for years they seem to go on and on.

Pretty sure thats the model I had. Certainly looks like it. 3 speed fan and has a remote control or mine both did anyway. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/32-49-w-hatari-ap12r1-filter-pm25-i4391005779-s18073631294.html

I got mine in Pattaya Power Buy or Home Depot.

 

[GypsyT]

I loved to live in Lake Mabprachan BUT the air quality was so hot and "thick" and no breeze.

 

Now back to Jomtien beach, a block from ocean, higher floor to get fresh air 24/7. no need to run AC.

What a difference! Now THIS is heaven -:)

 

 

 

 

[leverito]

No any pollution if you live near the sea.

[brewsterbudgen]

3 hours ago, Simon1287 said:

Excellent! I lived in South Pattaya for many years and had two purifiers going 24/7 year round as well as 3M Filtrete on the AC units. 

On really bad air pollution days I could open an outside door and actually smell the pollution in the air. A kind of dirty, oily, industrial smell. 5 minutes outside and I could no longer smell it, as could pretty much no one else ever as they had no purifiers to give them respite from the 24/7 body killing pollution. Even on days as bad as that my apartment had really fresh, clean smelling air thanks to the two purifiers.

I finally gave up on living anywhere north of Surat Thani this time of year and in fact now only visit Thailand at all between about May and September. It's a shame it has to be those months as they are the best weather here in the UK but after so many years in Pattaya breathing in crap and rapidly approaching the age of 70 I am UK based for now and will visit Thailand anytime as and when the mood takes me outside of the polluted "killing season". After much research into the effects of air pollution before I finally gave up on Thailand full time I stand by my description of it.

If I want to get on a plane tomorrow and go live in Thailand again I can but really, you are welcome to it for a while yet.

I will say that if you live in Pattaya etc etc and you don't have at least one air purifier going full blast at the moment then you are, without any doubt whatever, one sandwich short of a picnic.

Hatari do a cheap and really good purifier. Only 3000-4000 Baht I think. The filters are cheap enough and very easy to get both the purifier and replacement filters in Pattaya or online. I had two for years they seem to go on and on.

Pretty sure thats the model I had. Certainly looks like it. 3 speed fan and has a remote control or mine both did anyway. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/32-49-w-hatari-ap12r1-filter-pm25-i4391005779-s18073631294.html

I got mine in Pattaya Power Buy or Home Depot.

 

Yes, Thailand is not for everyone, especially people who are in poor health or worried about their health.  Unfortunately, 70 million people have to live here!

[john donson]

23 hours ago, LarryLEB said:

At 10:00 a.m. this morning (January 16), Pattaya's air quality was the worst in Thailand.  According to IQAir, the reading was 153.  From the same source, the pm2.5 concentration was 59.4  µg/m³, of which the site states:     "PM2.5 concentration in Pattaya is currently 11.9 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value."  

 

We have 2 air purifiers we use in our sitting room/kitchen/dining room area (about 70 square meters).  When they were opened this morning, they read the PM2.5 in that area as 30  µg/m³  they now read about 10, and will continue to decrease.  At night each of our 2 bedrooms has one air purifier running and can keep the PM2.5 below 3 or 4.

 

 

 

but if you open the airco, the flow of bad air will come in and your purifier is pretty useless

[LarryLEB]

8 minutes ago, john donson said:

 

but if you open the airco, the flow of bad air will come in and your purifier is pretty useless

The air conditioners do not draw in air from outside.  They simply cool the interior air.  

 

As I said in my original post, yesterday we opened the air purifiers and they read the PM2.5 in our condo as 30  µg/m³.  Within 25 minutes, with the air con running, the reading was down to only 4.

[LarryLEB]

43 minutes ago, leverito said:

No any pollution if you live near the sea.

That is NOT the case.  We live in a 16th floor condo only 500 meters from the sea.  On days like today and yesterday (right now the air "quality" rating is again the highest in Thailand at 159 µg/m³),   Ko Larn can barely be seen because of the pollution.  (On some days, it cannot be seen at all!)  So, being near the sea does not help much, if any.

Edited January 17 by LarryLEB

[GypsyT]

22 minutes ago, LarryLEB said:

That is NOT the case.  We live in a 16th floor condo only 500 meters from the sea.

1/2 km is not near....

0 - 200 meters - no pollution.

 

 

[Skeety65]

4 hours ago, Simon1287 said:

Excellent! I lived in South Pattaya for many years and had two purifiers going 24/7 year round as well as 3M Filtrete on the AC units. 

On really bad air pollution days I could open an outside door and actually smell the pollution in the air. A kind of dirty, oily, industrial smell. 5 minutes outside and I could no longer smell it, as could pretty much no one else ever as they had no purifiers to give them respite from the 24/7 body killing pollution. Even on days as bad as that my apartment had really fresh, clean smelling air thanks to the two purifiers.

I finally gave up on living anywhere north of Surat Thani this time of year and in fact now only visit Thailand at all between about May and September. It's a shame it has to be those months as they are the best weather here in the UK but after so many years in Pattaya breathing in crap and rapidly approaching the age of 70 I am UK based for now and will visit Thailand anytime as and when the mood takes me outside of the polluted "killing season". After much research into the effects of air pollution before I finally gave up on Thailand full time I stand by my description of it.

If I want to get on a plane tomorrow and go live in Thailand again I can but really, you are welcome to it for a while yet.

I will say that if you live in Pattaya etc etc and you don't have at least one air purifier going full blast at the moment then you are, without any doubt whatever, one sandwich short of a picnic.

Hatari do a cheap and really good purifier. Only 3000-4000 Baht I think. The filters are cheap enough and very easy to get both the purifier and replacement filters in Pattaya or online. I had two for years they seem to go on and on.

Pretty sure thats the model I had. Certainly looks like it. 3 speed fan and has a remote control or mine both did anyway. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/32-49-w-hatari-ap12r1-filter-pm25-i4391005779-s18073631294.html

I got mine in Pattaya Power Buy or Home Depot.

 

 

[Skeety65]

I moved to Thailand (Pattaya) 12 years ago and I was completely unaware of the bad air pollution. Living by the ocean I never gave it a thought but once I became enlightened to this health issue I went out and bought 2 air purifiers which I run 24/7 at this time of year plus I always wear an N95 pollution mask when riding my scooter but unfortunately the toxic smog still affects my health and you’re right you can actually smell it. 

i love to swim, walk and do other types of exercise outdoors but unfortunately I just can’t do that at this time of year. 
Anyway I started to do some proper research into this subject and it made realize just how serious a problem it is especially in parts of Asia like Thailand. 
long term exposure will definitely damage your lungs, worse case we are talking lung cancer and emphysema just to name a few. Yeah it’s really <deleted> up. 

Got me thinking that I  didn't come here to retire only to be a prisoner in my own home for 4 months of the year and to risk my health every time I ventured outside so I finally decided enough is enough and I’m planning my exit for later this year where I’ll relocate south to Koh Samui where the air is good most of the time.

 

it wasn’t an easy decision though as I’ll be leaving behind many good friends and the thought of starting over again is a little daunting but I really didn’t feel I could carry on living In a city where the air is so toxic.

 

Also Pattaya has become an extension of Bangkok with very bad traffic which only adds to the problem especially those hideous tour buses pumping out their black smoke.

 

what amazes most though is that most people especially the tourists are completely oblivious to the air pollution and that’s despite it being reported almost on a daily basis now.

 

if you’re going to live in pattaya and you value your health you definitely need to invest in some decent air purifiers. 
 

cheers 
 

 

 

4 hours ago, Simon1287 said:

Excellent! I lived in South Pattaya for many years and had two purifiers going 24/7 year round as well as 3M Filtrete on the AC units. 

On really bad air pollution days I could open an outside door and actually smell the pollution in the air. A kind of dirty, oily, industrial smell. 5 minutes outside and I could no longer smell it, as could pretty much no one else ever as they had no purifiers to give them respite from the 24/7 body killing pollution. Even on days as bad as that my apartment had really fresh, clean smelling air thanks to the two purifiers.

I finally gave up on living anywhere north of Surat Thani this time of year and in fact now only visit Thailand at all between about May and September. It's a shame it has to be those months as they are the best weather here in the UK but after so many years in Pattaya breathing in crap and rapidly approaching the age of 70 I am UK based for now and will visit Thailand anytime as and when the mood takes me outside of the polluted "killing season". After much research into the effects of air pollution before I finally gave up on Thailand full time I stand by my description of it.

If I want to get on a plane tomorrow and go live in Thailand again I can but really, you are welcome to it for a while yet.

I will say that if you live in Pattaya etc etc and you don't have at least one air purifier going full blast at the moment then you are, without any doubt whatever, one sandwich short of a picnic.

Hatari do a cheap and really good purifier. Only 3000-4000 Baht I think. The filters are cheap enough and very easy to get both the purifier and replacement filters in Pattaya or online. I had two for years they seem to go on and on.

Pretty sure thats the model I had. Certainly looks like it. 3 speed fan and has a remote control or mine both did anyway. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/32-49-w-hatari-ap12r1-filter-pm25-i4391005779-s18073631294.html

I got mine in Pattaya Power Buy or Home Depot.

 

 

[eyeman]

On 1/16/2024 at 10:23 AM, bbko said:

With no rain in months, the air if filled with dust.  No wonder some still wear a face mask.

 

Anyone up for a rain dance? 

 

I do wonder about the rain point, I am surrounded by three different construction operations currently, large cement and plaster bags arriving by the truck load every other day, plus non stop heavy drilling, I can't see it but I suspect they are large contributors to dust in my immediate vicinity, when the rain comes and the construction finishes or tapers off, won't this dust just end up back on the ground only for a few dry days to put us back to dusty air again?

[eyeman]

2 hours ago, LarryLEB said:

The air conditioners do not draw in air from outside.  They simply cool the interior air.  

 

As I said in my original post, yesterday we opened the air purifiers and they read the PM2.5 in our condo as 30  µg/m³.  Within 25 minutes, with the air con running, the reading was down to only 4.

 

I have CO2 measuring thing putting the aircon on can bring my room down from a stale 650 to 510 so there is definitely some exchange going on..

[CygnusX1]

6 hours ago, Simon1287 said:

Hatari do a cheap and really good purifier. Only 3000-4000 Baht I think. The filters are cheap enough and very easy to get both the purifier and replacement filters in Pattaya or online. I had two for years they seem to go on and on.

When you were running the purifiers 24/7, how often were you replacing the filters? I suppose it depends on how bad the pollution was.

[CygnusX1]

4 hours ago, GypsyT said:

I loved to live in Lake Mabprachan BUT the air quality was so hot and "thick" and no breeze.

 

Now back to Jomtien beach, a block from ocean, higher floor to get fresh air 24/7. no need to run AC.

What a difference! Now THIS is heaven -:)

You’re a lot tougher than me with no AC running, and I live in a similar location, also high floor and shady side, but have AC on constantly (except for the cold snap a few weeks ago).

 

If you think the air at Jomtien’s fresh, I’d hate to think what Lake Mabprachan is like. At least I’ve been able to see Koh Larn all the time, if that’s completely obscured it’s my test for PM2.5 having reached New Delhi levels.

[LarryLEB]

6 hours ago, eyeman said:

 

I have CO2 measuring thing putting the aircon on can bring my room down from a stale 650 to 510 so there is definitely some exchange going on..

In our condo, the North end of each room is floor-to-ceiling glass, with half of that being the typical sliding panel.  These definitely do leak air.  For example, when we head to bed, the purifiers in our sitting/dining/kitchen area read 001 or 002 (PM2.5).  When we get up in the morning and turn them on, they (recently) have been starting at the 020 to 025 range (with the a/c off).  So, the polluted air does enter around the glass panels.

[Simon1287]

10 hours ago, CygnusX1 said:

When you were running the purifiers 24/7, how often were you replacing the filters? I suppose it depends on how bad the pollution was.

Can't quite think off hand but as you say, depends how bad the air is.

 

What I can remember though is that if you put some 3M Filtrete on the AC filters then a lot of the air purifiers work is done for it anyway as AC units move a huge amount of air.

 

Not sure how good Filtrete is at catching 2.5 particles (they say it is electrostaticlly charged or something so it may catch some I don't know for sure) but it will catch a LOT of bigger particles which means the purifier HEPA filter has far less work to do. If you want to see what I mean just put some Filtrete on your AC filter and check back in a week. You will be shocked by the crap it's taken out of your rooms air in such a short time (and, presumable, saved a lot of it being filtered by your lungs instead...)

 

Buy it online or I used to buy it at Homepro or Home Depot or whatever it is at Carrefour in Central Pattaya. Even if you don't buy a purifier (mad if you don't though..) do buy some Filtrete and change regularly. Keep an eye on it at this time of year in case it starts blocking the filter, as I say, you will be shocked at the amount of pollution and crap it takes out of the air. 

Edited January 17 by Simon1287

[Simon1287]

[Northstar1]

On 1/15/2024 at 10:26 PM, scubascuba3 said:

Yes was bad this morning, could smell it in the air, 162 at 6.30am, now 131, suck it up

Suck it up?

what? The pollution?

[spidermike007]

And there are so many things the authorities could be doing if they cared one iota. With the multitude of Sretta promises and declarations about air quality, absolutely nothing is being done.

 

Nothing's is being done to punish the sugar refiners who are the major culprits, nothing is being done to punish the sugar farmers who are also major culprits.

 

Nothing is being done by the do-nothing administration and Mr. Do Nothing. Sretta. 

[Paris333]

Although I live in Greece / Athens where the air is very-very clean but I clean my air conditioning in my house every two months
First you take the air conditioner's plug out of the socket. 
Second, if you want to follow the instructions in the video. 
Third I clean filters in the bathroom with soap and water while the indoor air conditioning unit I go and buy either a/c cleaner or aluminum exterior cleaner for tough dirt.
Other friends buy foam spray even for kitchen stove it does a fine job and then spray water to clean it.

I apologize to the forum moderators for the youtube post but it is about preventive cleaning.

Air Conditioner Cleaning Indoor and Outdoor Unit Using Nu-Calgon Coil Cleaner

 

Edited January 17 by Paris333

[jacko45k]

21 hours ago, leverito said:

No any pollution if you live near the sea.

Afraid that doesn't apply, Bangkok and Pattaya are getting polluted and both close to the sea. 

[CygnusX1]

8 hours ago, Simon1287 said:

Buy it online or I used to buy it at Homepro or Home Depot or whatever it is at Carrefour in Central Pattaya. Even if you don't buy a purifier (mad if you don't though..) do buy some Filtrete and change regularly. Keep an eye on it at this time of year in case it starts blocking the filter, as I say, you will be shocked at the amount of pollution and crap it takes out of the air. 

Thanks for that, as well as the picture,  very useful info.

[GypsyT]

Real bad right now 8.00am. The worse I even have seen on Jomtien beach!

However, don't feel it but no 9km walk this morning.

 

https://www.iqair.com/th-en/thailand/chon-buri/pattaya

"155"

"PM2.5 concentration in Pattaya is currently 13.8 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value."

 

Edited January 18 by GypsyT

[Simon1287]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

Afraid that doesn't apply, Bangkok and Pattaya are getting polluted and both close to the sea. 

100% correct. There is no escape and certainly not merely by being next to the sea. The pollution makes no distinction between land and water as far as I am aware.

 

Being on the beach at Pattaya/Jomtien with a strong breeze coming in from the sea it just blows in more and more pollution, as I have found on very many occasions.

 

The only escape is by buying as much air purifying power as you can for your home. The more the merrier. Overkill is good in this context!

 

Ensure the replacement filters are available on whichever one(s) you buy and at a sensible cost. I well remember that very sound advice way back in the days before I bought my first purifier.

 

More than once I was in a shop where they were happy to sell me the purifiers but went wobbly when I asked them about getting new filters.

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, those Hatari's are cheap. Just get double the amount they say you need and you will never regret it. Another good reason for that is that you can run them on very low settings at night (quieter) yet still have good air cleaning at this bad time of year as you have double.

 

Air looks to be about 160 in Pattaya as I write this. I am in rural(ish) UK where it looks to be about 30. Zero degrees outside I admit (very cold spell the past few days) but I am nice and warm in my very well insulated house at 26 degrees and really, despite gagging to get back to Thailand anytime over the past 30 years when I was unfortunate enough to have to spend any time in UK, these days I don't envy you lot one bit for being in Pattaya all year round (for several reasons)

 

I will probably be there about May/June though if I feel like it when the air will be passably ok until I flee again before it turns poisonous once more. The yearly pollution times are a very inexact science though.

 

I well remember one year, about 2015 maybe, when I counted on one hand the amount of days that weren't badly polluted from mid October to late April. I woke up one day and it was gone. Didn't come back for months. The temperature inversion lifted I assume as I doubt all the polluters suddenly stopped polluting on the same day.

 

Then some years it wasn't so bad. Now, it seems to be getting worse..

 

Around 1993ish I think it was I first started spending far too much time in Pattaya :) and Thailand generally, and pollution is something I really can't remember being a problem back then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[beautifulthailand99]

I've given up getting angry now and thankfully live back in the UK for most of the year. Societal dysfunction in allowing what is for the most part peasant farmers to destroy the air of the nation shows some real rotteness in the system. You would think that if some peasants dumped a load of crop on a rich person's estate they would get short shrift from the authorities but the air mai been rai.