Air Quality

[Searat7]

I have lived in Bangkok most of the past 7 years and have had sinus problems since Day 1. I got by with steroid shots until earlier this year. Then I started having sinus headaches and asthma attacks (both for first time in my life). Now I've been told I have severe sleep apnea too. Moving to another part of Bangkok (I live in Silom) is not a good option because it's the time I spend outside on the street which is the problem- not so much where I live.

Has anyone moved to Pattaya (like Jomtien Beach area) and found an improvement in air quality ? I ask this because the transport service there is mainly open diesel trucks and the air on the street there does not seem so great to me.

[chiang mai]

I don't know the answer to your question but if you do a search in the Chiang Mai forum you'll find lots of information/statistics on air quality and Pattaya is included. Note: the subject of air quality comes up every year in the North hence the CM forum.

[Heng]

I live in both cities and IMO the Pattaya air is cleaner. Depends where you live in both places though. Numbers wise, about 300,000 vehicles in Pattaya vs. 5 million (or more) in Bangkok is no contest.

[Sheryl]

Bangkok is far worse, although you could do better than Pattaya. The further from the city center the better.

[wpcoe]

This is my (i.e. anecdotal, non-scientific) experience:

I lived in Bangkok for four years, 2001-2005, then in Jomtien for six years 2005-2011 (moved to Hua Hin this past March).

In Bangkok I had chronic, but not too severe, sinus problems. I lived in various parts of the city: Suk Soi 26, Sathorn and Sathu Pradit. In each area, if I didn't use air con, and would mop the floors Mo/We/Fr, the soles of my feet would be black by Tu/We/Sa. Same-same for dusting furniture, etc.

In Jomtien, I could get away with WEEKS of not mopping the floor or dusting the furniture, and my sinuses rarely gave me a problem. With a couple exceptions -- about a week each fall, IIRC -- what ever pollution MIGHT appear during the day -- usually due to temperature inversions -- it disappears (blows away? dissipates?) at night.

I forgot how nice that was. Here in Hua Hin, for some reason, it is dusty. I even needed to even clean the window (fly) screens after about four months because they started to get clogged. It's not the black sooty stuff like I had in Bangkok, and I don't notice sinus problems, but I guess Jomtien had really clean air!

When I visit Bangkok now, if I stay more than two days, my sinuses act up.

(Besides the air pollution, the other major factor that drove my decision to live the big city -- and I am a city boy at heart -- was the noise pollution. Criminy is Bangkok noisy!)

[edwardandtubs]

It's not even an issue if you wear a good quality pollution mask (not a medical or cotton mask like the locals). So what - you get some strange looks. As far as I'm concerned everyone else is strange for breathing in all that crap.

[BuckarooBanzai]

Lived in both places for years and you can not do better than the onshore breezes at Jomtien Beach. Live in Surin now where pollution is pretty nonexistent at least in my area. The brown haze that hangs over Bangkok on so many days really says it all.

[mommysboy]

I don't know the answer to your question but if you do a search in the Chiang Mai forum you'll find lots of information/statistics on air quality and Pattaya is included. Note: the subject of air quality comes up every year in the North hence the CM forum.

I have lived in Bangkok for 6 years and my experience has in some way mirrored yours.

So much so that I am now actively planning a move to Pattaya as indeed, from my own personal experience anyway, the atmosphere is less challenging.

Incidentally, I am now back in Blitey on holiday, and my sinus problems (possibly with the help of Beconase too) have almost melted away. A sinus headache is hell.

Stats, well ok, but what stats won't tell you is that it's not just about the various particles in the atmos, it's about the heat, the dirty aircon, the noise (yes this effects us), the contrasts between the clay oven heat outside and the ridiculous cool inside shopping malls or bars, the humidity, and the vendor stir frying chillis.

Bangkok is mostly about so called 'LA smog' as opposed to 'London smog', the former essentially being invisible but still hazardous, and the latter being basically sulphuric and just plain dangerous.

Bangkok smog probably won't kill you but it can and does give rise to all sorts of respiratory problems as we have found out.