Air Pollution Spurs Lung Cancer Spike in Northern Thailand

[Skeptic7]

4 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

Yet the government still want people to go there in order to boost income for locals ........????

Money #1.

Life...meh, not so much. 

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Northern Thailand is confronting a critical public health issue, with Chiang Mai and Lampang provinces experiencing alarmingly high mortality rates from lung cancer linked to the pervasive presence of PM2.5 particles in the air.

But lets not say to much about it as it might impact tourism....

[csmith]

Have been in Chiangmai for 22 years now … this is the worst air pollution I remember …

 

 

[renaissanc]

For Thais: Anyone caught setting fires - 10 years in prison with no parole.

Land that is being cleared by burning the crop - 10 years in prison for the landowner with no parole.

Anything less and the situation will not change.

[Cabradelmar]

5 hours ago, Gknrd said:

Undoubtedly the most mineral place I have ever lived bar none. 

Unfortunately all those minerals are in the air people breath 🥁 

[koolkarl]

Go get a lung xray and if cancer then what?  There is absolutely no reason to stay in the cancer zone at all.  Nothing is more important than one's health. Besides you now have to pay income tax yearly and get no healthcare from the gov.  The answer is very obvious.

[Cabradelmar]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

from 20.3 per 100,000 people in 2010 to 30.7 in 2019

That's significant any way it cut it... the question is will anything change. I'm doubtful. Implementing long term strategies has never been Thailand's strength (there's always way too many conflicting interests and priorities among the stakeholders involved that can never be resolved to everyone's satisfaction), and that's what is needed.

[charliebadenhop]

Is there safe air for breathing.... anywhere in Thailand?

 

 

[sungod]

3 minutes ago, charliebadenhop said:

Is there safe air for breathing.... anywhere in Thailand?

 

 

Surrounded by 'green' where I am in Pattaya.

[Presnock]

sungod: check the air quality in Pattaya - did so an hour ago myself - it was over 50, above the WHO recommendation for healthy breathing.  WHO is continuing to use 25 while the US and some countries opt for 50 because they couldn't get the 25 hardly ever - in 8 months here I have only seen it below 25 once! and that was early (4AM) only before it started to rise.  Pattaya is on the water and should be cleaner but not a whole lot.

[Chongalulu]

43 minutes ago, csmith said:

Have been in Chiangmai for 22 years now … this is the worst air pollution I remember …

 

 

You just playing up the "hansum man" image…?

[rumak]

1 hour ago, Tarteso said:

Bye bye Chiang Mai forever.

 

and........ you are moving to where ?     ( i always hesitate to say where i would move,  as i don't want everyone else going there !)   ha ha 

in fact.... thirty years ago , living in CM ,  i would cringe whenever one of the few farangs living here would tell people about it .    Now that they have come ..... look what's happened .

 

so.   where ya moving to ?

[Chongalulu]

10 minutes ago, sungod said:

15 minutes ago, charliebadenhop said:

Is there safe air for breathing.... anywhere in Thailand?

 

 

Surrounded by 'green' where I am in Pattaya.

Yes,but I don’t think the cannabis is helping…

[Caldera]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Studies indicate a rapid rise in lung cancer deaths in the North, from 20.3 per 100,000

 

I wouldn't be surprised if we'll see similar developments in Bangkok. The air just keeps getting worse, without any real action taken to improve things. 

[Hardcastle P]

Not just Northern Thailand the whole of Thailand, wake up government you are killing the next generation, children are far more susceptible to lung problems than adults. Ban burning off rice straw for starters bail the stuff it pays for itself. 

[rumak]

by the way.............. the point was made in a similar  "pollution topic"   yesterday that  "THERE'S FIRES ALL OVER ASIA NOW".......  Check out the fire radar and one should get the picture that it is HELPLESS  to just stop the local burning in N of Thailand.     Just an observation that smoke knows no boundaries..... and all the neighbors are having a fire fest every year

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:2024-04-01..2024-04-07;@102.2,17.9,6.7z

[off road pat]

1 hour ago, Presnock said:

I choose to live in Thailand knowing well (been living here off and on for 50 years, pollution in the burning season has been around all of those 50 but spreads just about every growing season as farmers need more money to eat rice or whatever.  Big business when they went to ethanol and needed corn for the mixture in fuels, sugar cane burning is getting bigger as they can get more money and the health issues - we were told on this forum in the news media that the pm wouldn't call CM an emergency site (so that they could get additional funds to fight the fires and pollution) because it might scare tourists away.  

Hm,...The prospect of getting Cancer is scaring the tourists away !??!?,..well,...who would have thought ??

[Asquith Production]

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

Almost as bad as living in London perhaps, my brother who now lives in Australia flew to London on business, he said you could smell the air it was so dirty.

Considering London is ranked around 53rd cleanest out of over 120 cities worldwide it must have been some time ago

[dinsdale]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! This sort of thing is bad for tourism. I'm suprised Assoc Prof Chalerm Liewsisakul hasn't been charged for tarnishing the image of Thailand. 

Today's fire map.

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@111.5,15.8,4.9z

AQI https://aqicn.org/station/thailand-chiang-mai-cmis-chiangmai/#/z/11

 

[Asquith Production]

2 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Almost as bad as living in London perhaps, my brother who now lives in Australia flew to London on business, he said you could smell the air it was so dirty.

 

[sammieuk1]

In my twenties I spent 4 years stripping "blue asbestos" out of train carriages, up until 3 years ago I spent 10 years living in Chiang Mai, and looking back the soot city was by far more of health risk and would advise anyone if possible to leave asap 🤔 

[malibukid]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Air pollution causes countless diseases and wreaks havoc on the body. This essentially means that Sretta and this callous and  useless administration has essentially chosen cancer and disease over the people. They have chosen Big Agra over law and order.

 

And they have demonstrated very vividly and very clearly the level of moral bankruptcy within the leadership of this nation. 

same can be said of Americas support for Israel

[NorthernRyland]

Official shirt of the Chiang Mai expat.

 

[Roo Island]

3 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Almost as bad as living in London perhaps, my brother who now lives in Australia flew to London on business, he said you could smell the air it was so dirty.

Impossible to compare London with CM. How many times has CM been in the top ten worst cities globally? Lots...

[Yellowtail]

Should this not somehow be due to climate change?

 

Maybe wearing masks causes it...

[NativeBob]

N95 masks have nothing to do with original 3M N95 masks. I think these knockoffs produced everywhere in LOS and sold as "Real McCoys". China Town in BKK has bulk of them. pure rubbish.

During SARS back then I ordered at Ebay few boxes and have can compare real one with COVID and latest. Rubbish!

 

[soalbundy]

21 minutes ago, Roo Island said:

Impossible to compare London with CM. How many times has CM been in the top ten worst cities globally? Lots...

Well I can't say anything about that, I haven't been back to the UK for 50 years, I did live in CM for about a year but as a smoker air pollution has never bothered me, in fact I never noticed it apart from the smog. I used to work in Dagenham and the smog there was sometimes awful and at night it could be so bad that it was dangerous to drive, I've driven in Germany during really ferocious snow storms but Dagenham was worse during a smog.

[Gknrd]

7 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

And still there are stupid foreigners want to live there. Welcome to Cancer City!

Expats see and get sucked in to the government and YouTube trolls that pump out 100% nonsense. Then get stuck there. A miserable way to spend your last days. It took me three years to finally break all my ties (hard). Best thing I ever did for my health.

 

[Artisi]

3 hours ago, CygnusX1 said:

If you look at lung cancer deaths on websites with stats on life expectancy, Thailand does surprisingly well, with lung cancer deaths per 100,000 about the same as Australia and New Zealand. I find that very surprising, considering the vastly cleaner air in those countries, and with levels of smoking I would have thought are lower than Thailand’s.

There are also quite a few countries with overall death rates greater than 30.7 per 100,000, maybe due to high rates of smoking.

Reporting for Aus & NZ are probably an accurate number, whereas for Thailand it would be hit and miss, if reported at all. 

[Roo Island]

5 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

Well I can't say anything about that, I haven't been back to the UK for 50 years, I did live in CM for about a year but as a smoker air pollution has never bothered me, in fact I never noticed it apart from the smog. I used to work in Dagenham and the smog there was sometimes awful and at night it could be so bad that it was dangerous to drive, I've driven in Germany during really ferocious snow storms but Dagenham was worse during a smog.

I would love to live in Northern Thailand. But can't due to the air pollution. Sucks.