Lampang Smog The Thickest In The Country

[george]

Lampang smog the thickest in the country

LAMPAMG: -- The smog currently hitting Lampang is the thickest in the country, a senior environment official said yesterday.

Suwit Khattiyawong said he would meet with the provincial governor today to discuss solutions to the problem, as well as to issue a health warning to the local public. Dust elements smaller than 10 microns in smog were hazardous to respiratory problems.

The three highest smog density has been detected in Lampang: 221 microgram per cubic metres in Muang district and 207 and 232 units in Mae Moh district.

Meanwhile, Some residents of Thailand's northern province of Chiang Mai are on 24hour security alert for forest fires as more than 100 blazes have occurred in the first 45 days of this year, according to a senior provincial forest fire control official.

Chiang Mai's Forest Fire Control Operation Division chief Surapol Leelavaropas said that from the beginning of the year, 111 forest fires already occurred, most of which believed to have been fires set by villagers who believe that the burning and subsequent ash will stimulate wild mushroom growth and nourish a better crop for a higher yield.

According to Mr. Surapol, 240 acres of Chiang Mai forest and woodlands have been burned within the past month and a half, mostly in Hang Dong and Hot districts. Wildfires have also caused smog and polluted air over the province during recent days.

Meanwhile, Hmong ethnic people living in the Doi SuthepPui National Park area have carved out a 20kilometre long forest fireguards around their village. They also set up 13 patrol groups to monitor possible forest fires around the clock.

The authorities are also raising awareness among the Hmong and other local residents in the mountains of the danger of forest fires, in an attempt to prevent further manmade fires being set off.

-- The Nation 2009-02-16

[george]

Northern provinces register rising respiratory illness:

Smog siege in Lampang, Phrae, Lamphun, Chiang Mai

CHIANG MAI: -- Respiratory illness is rampant in Thailand's north as seasonal burning combined with hotter weather and an earlier-than-usual summer brings suffering to large numbers of residents.

Worst-hit is Lampang where airborne particulate pollution levels have risen to 232 microns per cubic metre -- almost double the maximum acceptable standard, while Phrae at 171 microns and Lamphun at 126 microns are all suffering more severely than Chiang Mai.

Despite Chiang Mai's pollution in theory being within 'acceptable' health-standard limits, hundreds of Chiang Mai residents are going to hospital for treatment as they are suffering from the pollution-laden smog.

Medical authorities in the outlying provinces have not reported as clearly as has Chiang Mai – but Lamphun, Phrae and Lampang – are being blanketed by dust particles well above the danger level.

Maharaj Nakhon Chiang Mai Hospital director Dr. Wattana Navacharoen said that hundreds of local residents suffering respiratory-related illnesses from smog over the past week have come to hospital for treatment. Medical staff have warned the pubic that only facial masks can protect them from inhaling the polluted air.

Dr. Wattana noted that some patients decided to move temporarily to other provinces to be able to breath relatively fresh air.

The Pollution Control Department reported on Sunday that dust particle level in the Chiang Mai provincial seat registered 109 microns per cubic metre, pushing close to the maximum acceptable standard of 120 microns per cubic metre.

-- TNA 2009-02-16

[Ricardo]

That's Lampang, where the power-station outside town burns locally-mined brown coal, surely not a coincidence that it also has bad-quality air as well.

[KhunDennis]

I live in the Lampang area, and can testify to the bad air problem. In the evening you can smell the fowl air coming in the windows. In the morning when the air is heavy you can see the pollution just hanging all over the place.

Still on any given day you can see countless fires in the fields and the smell of burning rubbish is noticeable. The people are in denial of the problem, I think.

The air got a lot worse after the last rice harvest, when people started to burn the fields. It would take a monumental effort by the government to fix the problem, but I really don't think they are very concerned about it, or so it seems to me.

I like the area, but would not have settled here, had I known about the pollution before. It is hard to relocate now, house built and container delivered. Welcome to your retirement in paradise.

[KhunDennis]

I went down to Bangkok a couple of weeks ago, for the superbowl, and enjoyed the nice clean air of the city. Bangkok people were surprised when I told them that the air was so fresh there!

[mrsouza]

I met with a lamyai-farmer outside Chiang Mai this weekend and he explained to me why they keep burning their fields every year.

The problem for them is that if there is a forest fire, it could destroy all their land and livelihood. And once a forest fire breaks out, the government is too slow to react and protect them.

So in order to protect themselves, they simply burn the fields and woods before a forest fire can hit them and destroy their crops. They don't have much trust in getting any help from the government.

This is a serious problem and I think the only solution is if the government take real measures to stamp out forest fires more efficiently. They also need to convince the farmers that they have the situation under control. Well, that would require some sort of planning and organisational measures. What was I thinking?

[kiwiTV]

Beware of stopping the burn off in the mountains. If there is no burn off for two or three years, or more, the resulting residual wood fuel in the form of dry undergrowth could fuel such an intensely hot fire, there would be very little that the local populations could do to stop it causing much more serious damage when it does actually burn.

Burning fire breaks around villages might not be such a bad idea in the long term.

As for burning stubble in the fields, that is still happening because no one is out there to educate on the benefits of not burning the stubble or alternative practices that show the results are not being introduced. Notice organic farming is catching on in some places because it is financially viable. The best we to change the people, is to make it more financially viable to apply the best practices whether it be in the short term or long term.

Telling farmers not to burn because it pollutes the air will not produce help the situation anywhere in the world.

[stevehaigh]

I live in the Lampang area, and can testify to the bad air problem. In the evening you can smell the fowl air coming in the windows. In the morning when the air is heavy you can see the pollution just hanging all over the place.

Still on any given day you can see countless fires in the fields and the smell of burning rubbish is noticeable. The people are in denial of the problem, I think.

The air got a lot worse after the last rice harvest, when people started to burn the fields. It would take a monumental effort by the government to fix the problem, but I really don't think they are very concerned about it, or so it seems to me.

I like the area, but would not have settled here, had I known about the pollution before. It is hard to relocate now, house built and container delivered. Welcome to your retirement in paradise.

this is why i live on an island. i never understand why people praise he climate up north when its clear that the south has better air and more consistent, comfortable temperatures year round.

[jayjayjayjay]

I live in the Lampang area, and can testify to the bad air problem. In the evening you can smell the fowl air coming in the windows. In the morning when the air is heavy you can see the pollution just hanging all over the place.

Still on any given day you can see countless fires in the fields and the smell of burning rubbish is noticeable. The people are in denial of the problem, I think.

The air got a lot worse after the last rice harvest, when people started to burn the fields. It would take a monumental effort by the government to fix the problem, but I really don't think they are very concerned about it, or so it seems to me.

I like the area, but would not have settled here, had I known about the pollution before. It is hard to relocate now, house built and container delivered. Welcome to your retirement in paradise.

this is why i live on an island. i never understand why people praise he climate up north when its clear that the south has better air and more consistent, comfortable temperatures year round.

Well, look at it this way, the smog will cut out every last bit of dangerous UV radiation, hence making it safer for us, however, in Chiangmai we'll die of lung cancer, on the island's you'll die of skin cancer. Guess we will end up in the same hospital about the same time. Did however notice the skin cancer survival rate is much higher percentage wise than lung cancer........ might have to move south!!

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/skin

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/lung

[phrae]

Not sure about Lampang, but the problem around here in Phrae is the Charcoal

Production. The burning of Wood to produce Charcoal is quite a extensive practise, the worst area is Den Chai.

Driving on the Highway in Den Chai, you can not see 5 metres in front of you.

[hardy1943]

Not sure about Lampang, but the problem around here in Phrae is the Charcoal

Production. The burning of Wood to produce Charcoal is quite a extensive practise, the worst area is Den Chai.

Driving on the Highway in Den Chai, you can not see 5 metres in front of you.

Most up North here is from outside burning of wet leaves especially in the morning when everything is still wet

so it really smolders and the more it produces smoke the better they seem to like it, sometimes they even sit around it and I swear they must get off on it.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I live in the Lampang area, and can testify to the bad air problem.

I like the area, but would not have settled here, had I known about the pollution before. It is hard to relocate now, house built and container delivered. Welcome to your retirement in paradise.

Well, the answer is simple; most of the year the air quality in Lampang is very good. You just need to move to Hua Hin or Samui or Phuket from late February to April. Easy.

[thykeeper]

That explains it. I live in Chiang Mai and got lost on the highway the other day when I couldn't see the mountains. The Thais in Chaing Mai I have spoken to tend to agree it's older people have not kept in touch with the current state of the world. If I was a Thai I would be pissed, after all I don't want to die for a bunch of farmers and out of touch old men. The desire to burn anything dry is in these peoples blood so it will be hard to stop and no one seems to care as much me so I don't expect any change soon.

[Dap]

Lampang is a frying pan. When burn season rolls around, there's no way to remove the lid, and when you add the power station to the problem, it can certainly become untenable. Now it's like the morning fog never lifts.

[hhiser]

I live in Lampang and I agree the air quality is horrible. I really wished they made the air quality measurements in my village (Bahn Mongphraewgao (?)) in the Muang district, off  Super Highway 1 going toward Ngao. They make clay pots (OTOP) in the village and they fire them by covering the unfired pots with rice debris (and maybe yard waste and plastic) and set fire to it. It would not be so bad if they did no fire them under a shed without a chimney. The smoke just spreads out laterally blanketing the entire village. I love Thailand and think there are many postive aspects of its people and culture, especially since they do not legislate everything like in America. I firmly believe Education not Legislation is the right way to ensure a peaceful and happy life. Yet the Thai government is not trying to educate these people. In a country were it is illegal to smoke in bars it makes very little sense that people are allowed to endanger the health of their neighbors for just a few baht! I researched the carcinogens found in cigarette smoke versus that of low oxygen combustion and they contain the same carcinogens and mutagens.  So why disallow smoking in bars but allow people to pollute an entire village? It is far easier for the people who are concerned with their health to advoid bars then it is for me to buy a new house.

[perconrad]

I live in Phuket and my wife and I just came home last night after a 2 weeks car trip to NorthThailand. We visited Lampung, Chiang Mai, Doi Intanon, Mae Hong Son, Pai, Chiang Rai, The golden Triangel, Lampang and a lot in between these places.

We saw a lot of small fires and some smoke but nowhere was the smoke annoying, not even in Lampang.

In the mornings we saw some mist over the mountains, but I just thought it was the morning mist not yet evaporated by the sun.

It was a good vacation, but a lot of driving, more than 5000 km

[wackysleet]

I live in Phuket and my wife and I just came home last night after a 2 weeks car trip to NorthThailand. We visited Lampung, Chiang Mai, Doi Intanon, Mae Hong Son, Pai, Chiang Rai, The golden Triangel, Lampang and a lot in between these places.

We saw a lot of small fires and some smoke but nowhere was the smoke annoying, not even in Lampang.

In the mornings we saw some mist over the mountains, but I just thought it was the morning mist not yet evaporated by the sun.

It was a good vacation, but a lot of driving, more than 5000 km

I have to agree,we live in Lampang on the outskirts of the city and yes it has been a bit smokey but nothing that stops us sitting in the garden even though it seems to be very hot at this time, I think summer is a bit early here this year, but as for Bangkok having cleaner air, we lived in soi 8 on the Sukhumvit Rd and when you used the bridges to cross over from the odds to the evens it was a case of run for your life, you could actually chew on the pollution and while loving every minute of the area for the ten years we lived there my wife wanted to move north so we have been here nearly six years and would never move back.

[Briggsy]

The mountains of Mae Ping NP were akin to a fireworks show on Friday night. The arsonists had had yet another busy night.

[sabaijai]

I live in Phuket and my wife and I just came home last night after a 2 weeks car trip to NorthThailand. We visited Lampung, Chiang Mai, Doi Intanon, Mae Hong Son, Pai, Chiang Rai, The golden Triangel, Lampang and a lot in between these places.

We saw a lot of small fires and some smoke but nowhere was the smoke annoying, not even in Lampang.

In the mornings we saw some mist over the mountains, but I just thought it was the morning mist not yet evaporated by the sun.

It was a good vacation, but a lot of driving, more than 5000 km

I have to agree,we live in Lampang on the outskirts of the city and yes it has been a bit smokey but nothing that stops us sitting in the garden even though it seems to be very hot at this time, I think summer is a bit early here this year, but as for Bangkok having cleaner air, we lived in soi 8 on the Sukhumvit Rd and when you used the bridges to cross over from the odds to the evens it was a case of run for your life, you could actually chew on the pollution and while loving every minute of the area for the ten years we lived there my wife wanted to move north so we have been here nearly six years and would never move back.

Bangkok is quite clear at the moment, bright blue skies and very little visible smog. By comparison the north looks and feels like a bonfire. Have a look at current SPM data -- Bangkok comes out much better than Lampang, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai or Mae Hong Son at the momen, as is typical in March and April. This is the only time of year when I prefer Bangkok to the north, air-quality-wise.