Air Pollution Crisis Escalates with Hotspots Surge

[kwilco]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:48 AM, spidermike007 said:

 

Could you please explain how expats in Thailand are sacrificing their lives, or are you just engaging in nonsensical rambling? 

By the end of April last year 2.4 million people sought hospital treatment for Haze related illnesses.

Long term exposure will shorten you life expectancy by several years.

However it is now realised that even 24 hours exposure can bring about both shot and long-term effects.

 

Just because you ge through another haze season without any observable effects, it doesn't mean you're out of the woods.

Edited February 16 by kwilco

[kwilco]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:48 AM, spidermike007 said:

 

Could you please explain how expats in Thailand are sacrificing their lives, or are you just engaging in nonsensical rambling? 

By the end of April last year 2.4 million people sought hos[ital yreatment for Haze related illnesses.

Long term exposure will shorten you life expectsnce by several years.

However it is now realised that even 24 hours exposure can bring about both shot and long-term effects.

 

Just because you ge through another haze season without any observable effects, it doesn't mean you're out of the woods.

[DonniePeverley]

20 minutes ago, kwilco said:

I don't know where you get that idea from - last year there was a huge amount of coverage in the European press.

 

Nothing major. You could have picked it up here and there. 

 

 

[kwilco]

1 hour ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

Nothing major. You could have picked it up here and there. 

 

 

Every paper in the UK covered it - this year (week) reters an the Independent are covering it. NY Times Seattle Times even the Financial Times covered it. ...and they have been following it for years.

[spidermike007]

6 hours ago, kwilco said:

By the end of April last year 2.4 million people sought hospital treatment for Haze related illnesses.

Long term exposure will shorten you life expectancy by several years.

However it is now realised that even 24 hours exposure can bring about both shot and long-term effects.

 

Just because you ge through another haze season without any observable effects, it doesn't mean you're out of the woods.

Very true. Yet, the authorities are being obedient, cowardly little punks. Pay your fealty to the richest and the most foul, Sretta and Anutin. They own you. You are not in control. You are the puppets and they are the masters of this game. 

[kwilco]

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Sretta and Anutin.

It's who owns them that is the problem. Look at the rice and commodities markets in Thailand

[Lorry]

On 2/17/2024 at 2:59 AM, kwilco said:

I don't know where you get that idea from - last year there was a huge amount of coverage in the European press.

It was in printed papers. 

People who come to Thailand as tourists get their news from TV.

And by the time they buy their tickets for January, they have forgotten these ancient news anyway

 

I know many people from several of Thailand's main tourist markets.  I have never met anybody who had even heard of pollution in Thailand. 

But everybody "knows" that Thailand has beautiful beaches,  nice weather,  and is dirt cheap.

Just last week I was told what a beautiful place CM is, and how everybody wants to go there (in January or February).

 

[kwilco]

1 hour ago, Lorry said:

It was in printed papers. 

People who come to Thailand as tourists get their news from TV.

And by the time they buy their tickets for January, they have forgotten these ancient news anyway

 

I know many people from several of Thailand's main tourist markets.  I have never met anybody who had even heard of pollution in Thailand. 

But everybody "knows" that Thailand has beautiful beaches,  nice weather,  and is dirt cheap.

Just last week I was told what a beautiful place CM is, and how everybody wants to go there (in January or February).

 

Here is just one article by the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68487230

 

and CNN - https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/thailand-air-pollution-tourism-intl-hnk/index.html

 

Of course on social media/internet, it's everywhere.

 

Here's a recent online article - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/thailand-ap-chiang-mai-laos-world-health-organization-b2564311.html

 

 

I think you are leaning towards the "if-I-haven't-seen-it-it-doesn't-exist" school of thought.

I'm sure there are people who visit Thailand who are massively ignorant about it before coming but there are high and low seasons in areas and Thailand's pollution now is an international issue. It has been covered in many countries on TV, printed and probably most importantly, the social madia for several years - at times it does bear the question "what rock have you been under?"

PS - I visited the "North" in Feb March and the area was totally deserted - Thai people would not dream of going then - I also caught a bad chest infection.

Edited July 14 by kwilco

[Lorry]

1 hour ago, kwilco said:

Here is just one article by the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68487230

 

and CNN - https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/thailand-air-pollution-tourism-intl-hnk/index.html

 

Of course on social media/internet, it's everywhere.

 

Here's a recent online article - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/thailand-ap-chiang-mai-laos-world-health-organization-b2564311.html

 

 

I think you are leaning towards the "if-I-haven't-seen-it-it-doesn't-exist" school of thought.

I'm sure there are people who visit Thailand who are massively ignorant about it before coming but there are high and low seasons in areas and Thailand's pollution now is an international issue. It has been covered in many countries on TV, printed and probably most importantly, the social madia for several years - at times it does bear the question "what rock have you been under?"

PS - I visited the "North" in Feb March and the area was totally deserted - Thai people would not dream of going then - I also caught a bad chest infection.

My point was exactly what your post shows: people who travel to Thailand do not typically get their information from media targeting a worldwide audience.

The one British paper quoted most often in AN is the Daily Mail. 

 

I may be wrong, and maybe pollution does have an impact on tourism. 

From personal experience,  I have yet to meet a single person from their tourist markets who cares. 

 

[kwilco]

1 hour ago, Lorry said:

My point was exactly what your post shows: people who travel to Thailand do not typically get their information from media targeting a worldwide audience.

The one British paper quoted most often in AN is the Daily Mail. 

 

I may be wrong, and maybe pollution does have an impact on tourism. 

From personal experience,  I have yet to meet a single person from their tourist markets who cares. 

 

I lived in Thailand for 20 years and I know that people avoid pollution like the plague, as I said if you go north in Feb/March you'll have no problem getting a place because no=-one's there. I also have 20 years of photos comparing views with and without pollution.

If you check travel sites, you'll find dozens of questions on pollution every year.

I have travelled extensively over Thailand and Laos since th 1990s and pollution is a huge and growing problem. I have friends, both Thailand foreign who are ready to move from some towns for fear of the damage it is doing to their children.

As said just because you haven't experience of it, doesn't mean that others don't.

 

PS - the Independant is an online paper.

and it isn't just the British who are concerned it is ALL visitors to Thailand.

I even know of tour companies in the North who won't take bookings at that time of year.

AN is certainly not the only source of ing]formation for foreigners on Thailand.

 

Edited July 14 by kwilco

[Lorry]

5 minutes ago, kwilco said:

I lived in Thailand for 20 years and I know that people avoid pollution like the plague, as I said if you go north in Feb/March you'll have no problem getting a place because no=-one's there. I also have 20 years of photos comparing views with and without pollution.

If you check travel sites, you'll find dozens of questions on pollution every year.

I have travelled extensively over Thailand and Laos since th 1990s and pollution is a huge and growing problem. I have friends, both Thailand foreign who are ready to move from some towns for fear of the damage it is doing to their children.

As said just because you haven't experience of it, doesn't mean that others don't.

 

PS - the Independant is an online paper.

and it isn't just the British who are concerned it is ALL visitors to Thailand.

I even know of tour compnies in the North who won't take bookings at that time of year.

 

Yes, yes, yes, that's all true. 

I myself am going to move because of the pollution.

But only your last sentence related to what I am talking about: tourists. In my experience,  tourists don't care. And I know a lot of tourists and potential tourists,  from European and Asian markets. 

 

Your last sentence is very remarkable,  indeed,  and gives me hope that I may be wrong. I didn't know this. 

If Thailand loses money from pollution, and loses it now, not sometime in the future,  that might be a motivation for change. 

[kwilco]

56 minutes ago, Lorry said:

Yes, yes, yes, that's all true. 

I myself am going to move because of the pollution.

But only your last sentence related to what I am talking about: tourists. In my experience,  tourists don't care. And I know a lot of tourists and potential tourists,  from European and Asian markets. 

 

Your last sentence is very remarkable,  indeed,  and gives me hope that I may be wrong. I didn't know this. 

If Thailand loses money from pollution, and loses it now, not sometime in the future,  that might be a motivation for change. 

Sickness from pollution last year and this year  - From 1.3 million in the first nine weeks of 2023, the number of people seeking treatment for pollution-related illnesses increased to 1.6 million at the start of 2024, AFP reported - it doesn't go unnoticed.

More than 10 million Thais sought treatment for illnesses linked to air pollution in 2023 in total

PM Strettha has made several announcements about pollution.

Edited July 14 by kwilco

[motdaeng]

8 hours ago, Lorry said:

But only your last sentence related to what I am talking about: tourists. In my experience,  tourists don't care. And I know a lot of tourists and potential tourists,  from European and Asian markets. 

 

absolutely not true. i know two couples from europe who canceled this year their march trip

to the north because of news in the media about air pollution.

 

tourists visiting the north during the burning season will definitely not tell everyone at hoome

how great the air and the view from the mountain was ...

 

 

 

[Lorry]

59 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

tourists visiting the north during the burning season will definitely not tell everyone at hoome

how great the air and the view from the mountain was ...

 

I hope so.

I sometimes hear from tourists that they have been disappointed from Thailand,  but most come home and talk about paradise (but haven't been to the north). Never heard a tourist complain about the smog. 

Good to know there are others,  more sensitive ones.