Air Pollution Spurs Lung Cancer Spike in Northern Thailand

[vivananahuahin]

And after songkran festival so much billions bath spended, it is not responsible to accept this, I delete my holiday trip, to avoid to breath this air, no change as usual.

[soalbundy]

Just now, Roo Island said:

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

Well I live in the North-East in Isaan, about 1,000 Km from CM, the air seems pretty good where I live, in the countryside, but what do I know. I like CM, it has a good night life and the tourists seem to be a better class than the ones you get in Pattaya or Phuket. It has a nice atmosphere (pardon the pun) to it and has nice surrounding countryside, it isn't called Laan Na (a million fields) for nothing. Turtle lake, which is great for swimming, actually has sweet water which you taste when it gets in your mouth.

[sungod]

3 hours ago, Presnock said:

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.

12 at Lovell school near Wongamat when I posted, 8 at the moment.

 

 

 

[sungod]

Surrounded by 'green'

[Bobthegimp]

4 hours ago, csmith said:

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

 

 

 

The laughter was from me.

I'm not sure what's more humorous, the quality of the mask or the unshaven face it supposedly seals off.  You've got to be clean shaven for a mask to form a proper seal. You've also got gaps beside your schnozz, along the nasolabial folds.  

 

The cloth mask is bloody hilarious.  Do some drywall sanding with that thing on and see what gets through it. 

[AhFarangJa]

They are only peasants, plenty more where they came from. As long as it does not affect the Hi-So ruling class there is nothing to worry about......

[Bobthegimp]

15 minutes ago, sungod said:

Surrounded by 'green'

 

They should have AQI stations in the wh ore mongering hotspots, along with Pattaya live coochie cams. 

[Gilligan In Drag]

This is a good site for keeping track of the air quality, tens of thousands of independent air quality reporting stations feed the map that is updated every hour or two. You can get an idea if its just the people in your village in a carbon for cooking fires production frenzy or is it a wider problem, also good to decide where to go for weekend and gives you a good idea of the level of nonsense we are fed from the climate change alarmists how it is all created by the west you can clearly see day in and day out 365 days of the year China, India and Thailand lead the world in air pollution. https://aqicn.org/map/world

 

Smoke in the air does more than just damage your lungs, it wrecks your whole body, I have bladder cancer, supposedly a smokers disease and I have never smoked in my life, but I have lived in Thailand 24 years. Look around you, people routinely die in Thailand in their 50's and people will say that's a good ripe old age.I'm from a family of people on both parents sides who live well into their 90's, I will likely die in the next few years hardly above 60. Amazing Dieland I always call it.

 

the aforementioned air pollution map:

[spidermike007]

6 hours ago, Presnock said:

We are supposedly to try to understand why anyone would want to live in a polluted city...yet I suggest everyone google air quality Thailand.  One will see that the average for all of 2023 was 4.7 times the WHO safe air chart.  Today's air quality report which covers ove 400 Thai sites list cities throughout the country at many times the healthy level of pollution.  Even the coastal cities near large bodies of water are polluted too.  Just because you don't see it nor smell it, doesn't mean it is not there - I guess that is why so  many hundreds of thousands yearly in Thailand have to be treated for pollution caused illnesses.  About time for those with their heads buried in the sand or elsewhere to yank them out and realize they can't smell the roses.  My opinion about these naysayers.

And that says a lot and it's truly an abomination on the nation, and such a testament to the lack of leadership and willingness to stand up to Big Agra and do what needs to be done to clean up the air, and make the nation safe for its people. Money always trumps safety here and the people always lose out to corporate interests. You may say that that's true anywhere in the world, but it's so incredibly obvious here in Thailand with the air quality being what it is. This is not just a big city thing this is nationwide, as you say, and that's the real boil on the face of the nation.

 

If anybody thinks that Sretta is not sold out and morally bankrupt, all they have to do is look at the air. 

[Gottfrid]

1 hour ago, Gknrd said:

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.

 

Might be miserable, but it won´t last so long. Good for you! Hope you didn´t catch something that will affect you in the long run.

[sungod]

1 hour ago, Bobthegimp said:

 

They should have AQI stations in the wh ore mongering hotspots, along with Pattaya live coochie cams. 

I think you will be fine with your 'special mask' on Bob.

[Gottfrid]

6 hours ago, Marco51 said:

There are "stupid" farang who have lived and worked there for decades and have no choice unless they give up all they have invested here and go back to the street in Europe.....all for the greed and incompetence of an unelected government and a handful of unusually rich .....

As one makes the bed, one shall sleep. There are always choices when it comes to one's health.

[motdaeng]

11 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Money always trumps safety here and the people always lose out to corporate interests. You may say that that's true anywhere in the world, but it's so incredibly obvious here in Thailand with the air quality being what it is.

 

but because of covid they shot the whole country and the economy down ...

 

in the long term air pollution will kill much more people than covid did, and it will (does) create a costly health crisis ... but it seems the majority of thai people don't get it or simple don't care ... don't care what will be in the future and don't care if they own children will be one group of most effected by the toxic air ...

 

anyway, after 20 years i gave up the hop of improvement and i also gave up to understand why most thai people just accept the way it is ....

[Gottfrid]

9 hours ago, happysoul said:

I've been living in Chiang Dao for 11 years. Made a move last month for the kids. Some years were ok, some horrible. 2016 when our daughter was born, was one of the horrible. It didn't rain a single drop from December (2015) to June. Normally the smoke problem goes away with the rain, so if it rains every month it's not that bad (equals or even better than CM city if you can call that not that bad).

 

What I would like to see is a study of impact of fertilizers and other chemicals widely used in longan orchards and corn fields. But that's another wide topic and not the one here.

 

It's really sad for the place as it's really nice outside of these smoking months. Nature is "still" preserved and the mountains are beautiful. Lot's of birds, wild orchid and insects. I've seen a lot of weird things I had never seen before even having spend some time in Amazonia. And the cold season that was always welcomed. How nice to sleep under a blanket at 15°C !

 

We will go back for the Christmas holidays to get that cold feeling ! 

 

May I ask you : do you smoke ? do you drink ? 😉

Smoke, no.
Drink, yes. But no need to inhale it everyday.

[Ratel Snake]

How surprising...

[tinom]

Cancers & Turbo-Cancers rates have a recent spike everywhere in the world.

They can say pollution, stress or climate, which are effectively factors, are the cause.. but not the only one!

My tinfoil hat sees another correlation which I should probably refrain to verbalize here, but you can ask Dr John Campbell 👀

[jayjay2001]

4 hours ago, malibukid said:

same can be said of Americas support for Israel

Wow, malibukid, that was so clever how you interjected one of your political views into the discussion on a topic that has nothing to do with said political view. That must of used up a lot of your brain cells.  Is your brain still smoldering from that incredible wit?

[Northstar1]

7 hours ago, Marco51 said:

There are "stupid" farang who have lived and worked there for decades and have no choice unless they give up all they have invested here and go back to the street in Europe.....all for the greed and incompetence of an unelected government and a handful of unusually rich .....

So sad they have no plan b, I left myself after health issues, not worth sacrificing my life !

and no. Retirement is not staying indoors with air purifiers on or going out for a walk with a mask on!

I didn’t spend my whole life working hard to subject myself to the all that!

far too many first world countries to retire in!

[Northstar1]

7 hours ago, csmith said:

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

 

 

Wow! You really seem to be enjoying yourself! Wish I could retire to a place where I can where a gas mask!

BTW change your dirty shirt and get a haircut! We all know the real reason your there🤔🤔😂

[ArtVandelay]

8 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Presumably these lung cancers are in people who have been exposed to poor AQ for some decades......imagine the situation in...say...another 10 years.....AQ worse, population increasing, age profile getting older.....BUT....will this be of any concern to Baloo, Taksin et al.?....nope!

 

If a 50% increase in lung cancer deaths in a decade doesn't inspire a clean up there, then I don't know what will.  

Air pollution has got to be worse for children, whose lungs are still developing.   

[K2938]

2 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

If a 50% increase in lung cancer deaths in a decade doesn't inspire a clean up there, then I don't know what will.  

Air pollution has got to be worse for children, whose lungs are still developing.   

Was also very bad last year.  Did anything change then?🤣😱🤣

 

[eumenades]

When I lived in Sukhumvit Soi 27, my m/c tank was covered in dust every 24 hours. (Berlin smelled of sulphur when i got off the plane.)

[MangoKorat]

9 hours ago, Presnock said:

I have lived in many and doctors always told be if I was to exercise outside then I should wear an n95 mask!

Its always puzzled me why doctors only refer to air quality outside.  As if the air that comes inside magically cleans itself on the way in.

[GoodieAfterDark]

12 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Presumably these lung cancers are in people who have been exposed to poor AQ for some decades......imagine the situation in...say...another 10 years.....AQ worse, population increasing, age profile getting older.....BUT....will this be of any concern to Baloo, Taksin et al.?....nope!

 

I am sure that it has nothing to do with the "vaccines". All those lung cancers just spiked from nowhere.

[kiwikeith]

14 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. 

Not only Thailand, the whole world is rotten, carbon credit BS water pollution, plastic in fish, and just about everything we eat, pesticides in breakfast cereal and just about all we eat, exhaust pollution in most cities causing lung cancer, ect, ect, ect

[spidermike007]

57 minutes ago, kiwikeith said:

Not only Thailand, the whole world is rotten, carbon credit BS water pollution, plastic in fish, and just about everything we eat, pesticides in cereal and just about all we eat, exhaust pollution in most cities causing lung cancer, ect, ect, ect

While what you say is likely true, there are some things that we can directly affect and other things that we have zero control over. We can control some of our personal consumption of plastic, we can decide whether or not our plastic ends up by the side of the road or in the sea. We can decide not to buy plastic bottles containing water from 7-Eleven, or at a restaurant (I always bring my own bottle of water, to avoid consuming hundreds of bottles a year) or if we want to carry around our own bottle that we refill, we can decide if we want to carry grocery bags into the market that we use a hundred times, or have them give us five or six bags every time we shop. We can make a difference personally, while moaning and groaning about the issue does not make any difference, unless we take action. 

[Presnock]

as in Murp[hey's law, just after I write about how polluted it is too here in BKK, this AM (4) as I walked the dogs, measured the 2.5 micron - 5!!!!!!! yes five...then at 6AM only 14.  The best I have seen in 8 months.  Hope it hangs around as summer storms also forecasted.

 

[mania]

10 hours ago, Northstar1 said:

So sad they have no plan b, I left myself after health issues, not worth sacrificing my life !

and no. Retirement is not staying indoors with air purifiers on or going out for a walk with a mask on!

I didn’t spend my whole life working hard to subject myself to the all that!

far too many first world countries to retire in!

 

Hear Hear !! 👏

[Gknrd]

15 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

 

If a 50% increase in lung cancer deaths in a decade doesn't inspire a clean up there, then I don't know what will.  

Air pollution has got to be worse for children, whose lungs are still developing.   

They don't care, the air pollution in Thailand kills more people than  anything in the country , and has for years. Last year 25,000 soles lost their lives directly related to air pollution. 

[Will B Good]

15 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

 

If a 50% increase in lung cancer deaths in a decade doesn't inspire a clean up there, then I don't know what will.  

Air pollution has got to be worse for children, whose lungs are still developing.   

Absolutely......but what politicians, if any, care about taking action to solve a problem that won"t really impact for another decade????