Air Quality Report - Pls. Be Gentle W/Me

[junglechef]

Looking for a up to date info on PM-10 etc. in CM. I use http://www.earthoria.com/air-pollution-levels-in-chiang-mai-rising.html which seems to be good (no idea on accuracy) but it is a day old and not a lot of use for me in deciding if I should go for a bike ride etc.

I'm sure this has been posted before and I did search (really!) so don't yell at me, I'm quite sensitive and have a tendency to cry easily.

[Priceless]

The (only) reliable reports on air quality in Thailand are found here: http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/QueryAir.cfm?task=default

In Chiang Mai the major pollution problem is particulate matter (PM<10). This is (in accordance with international standards) calculated as a 24-hour average, in the case of Thailand from 9 am one day to 9 am the following. I'm afraid you won't find anything better suited for your specific needs.

/ Priceless

[james24]

The (only) reliable reports on air quality in Thailand are found here: http://www.pcd.go.th...fm?task=default

In Chiang Mai the major pollution problem is particulate matter (PM<10). This is (in accordance with international standards) calculated as a 24-hour average, in the case of Thailand from 9 am one day to 9 am the following. I'm afraid you won't find anything better suited for your specific needs.

/ Priceless

The only reliable report being from a government website, oh blimey we must be buggered

[Priceless]

The (only) reliable reports on air quality in Thailand are found here: http://www.pcd.go.th...fm?task=default

In Chiang Mai the major pollution problem is particulate matter (PM<10). This is (in accordance with international standards) calculated as a 24-hour average, in the case of Thailand from 9 am one day to 9 am the following. I'm afraid you won't find anything better suited for your specific needs.

/ Priceless

The only reliable report being from a government website, oh blimey we must be buggered

A reason might be that only a very limited number of ThaiVisa members are willing to cough up the US $20,000-25,000 that a PM<10 measuring instrument costs (source: http://www.airimpacts.org/documents/local/pmberlin.pdf). That is of course before running costs.

/ Priceless

[el jefe]

The (only) reliable reports on air quality in Thailand are found here: http://www.pcd.go.th...fm?task=default

In Chiang Mai the major pollution problem is particulate matter (PM<10). This is (in accordance with international standards) calculated as a 24-hour average, in the case of Thailand from 9 am one day to 9 am the following. I'm afraid you won't find anything better suited for your specific needs.

/ Priceless

The only reliable report being from a government website, oh blimey we must be buggered

A reason might be that only a very limited number of ThaiVisa members are willing to cough up the US $20,000-25,000 that a PM<10 measuring instrument costs (source: http://www.airimpacts.org/documents/local/pmberlin.pdf). That is of course before running costs.

/ Priceless

I'm pretty sure the air will be fine tomorrow morning for a bike ride. Unless it's still raining!

[junglechef]

that's brings me to the same link as I was using, not sure 9 am - 9 am which day since it lists today already. Thanks for the info anyways

The (only) reliable reports on air quality in Thailand are found here: http://www.pcd.go.th...fm?task=default

In Chiang Mai the major pollution problem is particulate matter (PM<10). This is (in accordance with international standards) calculated as a 24-hour average, in the case of Thailand from 9 am one day to 9 am the following. I'm afraid you won't find anything better suited for your specific needs.

/ Priceless

Edited April 6, 2011 by Tywais
Fixed quote

[Priceless]

that's brings me to the same link as I was using, not sure 9 am - 9 am which day since it lists today already. Thanks for the info anyways

The (only) reliable reports on air quality in Thailand are found here: http://www.pcd.go.th...fm?task=default

In Chiang Mai the major pollution problem is particulate matter (PM<10). This is (in accordance with international standards) calculated as a 24-hour average, in the case of Thailand from 9 am one day to 9 am the following. I'm afraid you won't find anything better suited for your specific needs.

/ Priceless

The date posted on the PCD website is the ending date of the measurement. The figure of 83.1 µg/m3 for 06-Apr-11 is actually for 9 am to midnight on 05-Apr-11 and for midnight to 9 am on 06-Apr-11, i.e. 15 hours of the first date and 9 hours of the latter.

/ Priceless

[anon467848]

I went up to Mae Sai yesterday on a visa run. The skies were very murky and it was barely possible to see the surrounding hillsides.... so I guess the burning is in full swing in Myanmar....

[orang37]

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun JungleChef,

Nice to see Khun Priceless once again providing thoughtful quality information on weather/air aspects here again !

But, humbly, we'd also like to suggest that you consider the where and when of your bicycle ride based on the hypothesis that pollution in generalis not "evenly distributed," in time, or place, (except when some absolute threshold is crossed, when the level is so high you can safely conclude that bicycling anywhere, at any time, means you are going to eat a lot of bad air).

It's our daily experience, as we bicycle mainly around Chiang Mai, that there are remarkable differences between main throughfares, and less-used roads, and major variations in neighborhoods, in the quality of the air, and that varies with time of day or night we ride.

For example, if we go for our daily fresh soy-milk purchase over to Thanon Charoenmuang around 5PM, the pollution/haze is very tangible right now (of course, we anticipate today's moisture will have cleaned the air today), the moment we are on our way back home, half-a-kilometer away from Charoenmuang, there's a definite change in air quality and temperature. And if we do our "soy-milk run" at night around 11PM, on average the air on Charoenmuang is, subjectively, better, but we still notice some change in temperature and air-quality (cooler, or cleaner) as we bicycle home.

You can explain the above, of course, by reference to pollution from heavy traffic, or interaction of motor vehicle pollution with other types of pollution.

So, planning where and when you'll ride, if you can, we propose might make a difference, until the levels of pollution reach some critical point at which no matter where you go ... ?

Fortunately there are many serious bicycle-riders on this forum who are regularly doing long rides (like the Samoeng loop), so we hope they will weigh in here, to give us more of a "cross-country" perspective.

best, ~o:37;

Edited April 6, 2011 by orang37