Dangerous Haze In Six Provinces: Pcd

[tropo]

P.S if you want to nitpic the CIA factbook you quoted says 71.24 for thai males.. No it does not just effect males sorry I was just using males as I am one. It effects males and females, straights and gays and lady boys.

Life expectancy at birth total population: 73.6 years male: 71.24 years female: 76.08 years (2011 est.)

Your estmate of male life expectancy in Thailand was 63 years, CIA factbook was 71.24. That's hardly nitpicking - a huge difference.

You are using a country near the top of the chart as a comparison though - I believe the biggest reason why Australia is so far ahead would be availability of socialized medicine. We're keeping them alive past their natural lifespan with medical intervention. For example, my 81 year old mother would have expired years ago if she didn't have free medical care - a situation almost universal in Australia and other such countries.

Edited February 26, 2012 by tropo

[nong38]

Chiang Mai is the same if not worse, the sun can't even break through the haze. My son (5 Yrs) just spent 3 days in Chiangmai Ram hospital after suffering continuous coughing fits for days. He had a resporatory problem and required intermitant oxygen. The doctor advised us that he should remain indoors until the problem with the smoke and pollution passes. I guess that means keeping him out of school. I have also noticed that I get sore eyes and headaches if I spend to much time outdoors.

The average life span for an Aussie male is 76 years (4th highest in the world) and in Thailand it is 63 yrs. Surely this practice of buring the country every year must be having some impact on this.

Don't Thais realise that they are also burning money, someone could have good business venture collecting or this vegetation that is going to be simply burnt and turn into mulch which could be cultivated back into the soil as nature intended. We have a mulcher and all our green waste is recycled and used and our garden soils are rich and black with worms in abundance. No fertilisers used and we get the best produce.

Its cheaper to burn everything, Thais no (!) best ( still hoping to win the lottery great odds!).

[coma]

Before and after views from our house.

Last year mid March.

Present day.

I just love comparitive photography. Pictures don't lie.

Ever heard of Photoshop?

Yes of course I have. But in this instance I have the experience to know that these photo's are real. Cuz I see it for myself. But thanks for your concern.

[chooka]

P.S if you want to nitpic the CIA factbook you quoted says 71.24 for thai males.. No it does not just effect males sorry I was just using males as I am one. It effects males and females, straights and gays and lady boys.

Life expectancy at birth total population: 73.6 years male: 71.24 years female: 76.08 years (2011 est.)

Your estmate of male life expectancy in Thailand was 63 years, CIA factbook was 71.24. That's hardly nitpicking - a huge difference.

You are using a country near the top of the chart as a comparison though - I believe the biggest reason why Australia is so far ahead would be availability of socialized medicine. We're keeping them alive past their natural lifespan with medical intervention. For example, my 81 year old mother would have expired years ago if she didn't have free medical care - a situation almost universal in Australia and other such countries.

Like I said, we used different sites in our google searches, it was NOT MY estimate. I have not personally conducted a survey and have no qualifications in the field we BOTH googled it to come up with our ages, well I assume that you did, sorry if I assumed incorrectly.

[MEL1]

The only HAZE of real concern is to be found in the heads of the bigotted leaders who can be located somewhere in and around BKK. You know? The ones with-titles such as Minister of X, PM and DeputyPM.

mel.

[softgeorge]

P.S if you want to nitpic the CIA factbook you quoted says 71.24 for thai males.. No it does not just effect males sorry I was just using males as I am one. It effects males and females, straights and gays and lady boys.

Life expectancy at birth total population: 73.6 years male: 71.24 years female: 76.08 years (2011 est.)

Your estmate of male life expectancy in Thailand was 63 years, CIA factbook was 71.24. That's hardly nitpicking - a huge difference.

You are using a country near the top of the chart as a comparison though - I believe the biggest reason why Australia is so far ahead would be availability of socialized medicine. We're keeping them alive past their natural lifespan with medical intervention. For example, my 81 year old mother would have expired years ago if she didn't have free medical care - a situation almost universal in Australia and other such countries.

Like I said, we used different sites in our google searches, it was NOT MY estimate. I have not personally conducted a survey and have no qualifications in the field we BOTH googled it to come up with our ages, well I assume that you did, sorry if I assumed incorrectly.

Data from World Bank

Last updated: Feb 17, 2012

Aust 81.54 yrs Thailand 73.77

You are both wrong or both right The site I checked shows different. Agree to disagree.

[Steely Dan]

i genuinely believe that a lot of thais are pyromaniacs.

they love to burn stuff. rather than let leaves rot and return to the soil, they will burn them. in my village they make chilli powder for sale at the local market. they deposit the husks at the rear of the village meeting place and rather than just leave them there so they can rot and most likely grow again in the rainy season.......... they burn them.

then will sit and continue to work while the smoke burms their eyes and they cough and splutter. its amazing to watch them. finally 2 days ago when my whole family couldnt breathe because we live across from it, i took a watering can and put out the smoldering embers of chillies. everyone could then breathe but they were pissed at me for putting out their fire. WTH.

in my village they will burn the remnants of the rice crops every year. older people die from breathing difficulties because of it. last year the unusual increase in rainfall prevented them from burning and their were no deaths from breathing difficulties. this year the haze is back and i expect to be seeing quite a few deaths because of it.

HM tells them every year not to do it, but still they persist. it seems they are unable to change. Why ?

Burning has another problem aside from the atmospheric pollution; that is that year on year organic matter disappears from the soil never to be replenished. Tropical soils are indeed often poor as it is with less than 0.5% organic matter. We have bought an old Cornfield which just became economically nonviable due to years of neglect. We now compost all kitchen and garden waste. Go to the rice factory to cart away bags of rice husk to make biochar and collect all the discarded coconut shells from the market vendors. Eventually we should be able to rehabilitate the soil, but the Thais are their own worst enemies, you can even get free pea and bean seeds to fix nitrogen in the soil if you just go to the local agriculture development office. They even have a vat of EM liquid yo be had for free, but hardly do we ever see any takers on our frequent trips there. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

[thequietman]

You can't educate idiots! I tried in my village,reminding the Puyai Bahn that burning your leaves,plastic etc is in fact illegal. He said he knew that,had tried to stop it but gave up. He is Thai of course and can't come at the confrontational nature of that so better to look the other way.

I will try another way. Maybe pay for the black plastic bags that nobody wants to pay 100 baht for and/or offer some other sort of financial incentive.

Offer my land for composting knowing the short term success that that will enjoy,if at all as mentioned above.

I just don't understand how they don't see the dangers of burning.

These are home based villagers (chao bahn) I'm talking about, exacerbating an otherwise existing problem.

the good citizens in my village were offered refuse collection twice weekly and additional street lighting......... for 50 baht each family, every month.

happy days i thought................ they declined saying it was too expensive. WTH

funny though, theres always 50 baht for thai whisket every evening. amazing.

[blabla1]

This haze also causes people to get pissed off real easy and tempers are short because of the lack of oxygen,so people please keep that in mind,

not to piss people offffff!!

Edited February 26, 2012 by blabla1

[1weatherman]

Oops, technical difficulties on trying to upload some pictures of the smoke. Maybe later.

Edited February 26, 2012 by 1weatherman

[tropo]

Like I said, we used different sites in our google searches, it was NOT MY estimate. I have not personally conducted a survey and have no qualifications in the field we BOTH googled it to come up with our ages, well I assume that you did, sorry if I assumed incorrectly.

.

No, I didn't Google it. I always use CIA Factbook for basic facts about various countries - it's a great resource. You didn't state where you got your numbers.

[tropo]

Data from World Bank

Last updated: Feb 17, 2012

Aust 81.54 yrs Thailand 73.77

You are both wrong or both right The site I checked shows different. Agree to disagree.

You weren't paying attention.

The figures we quoted were only for the male population.

CIA Factbook figures for the TOTAL population are very close to yours.

Thailand: Life expectancy - total population: 73.83 years (3 weeks more than your source)

Australia: Life expectancy - total population: 81.90 years (18 weeks more than your source)

So we can agree to agree then....

Edited February 26, 2012 by tropo

[Lite Beer]

Haze in Lampang causes flight delays from low visibility

LAMPANG, Feb 26 - Haze in this northern province on Sunday has caused flight delays from low visibility of some 400 metres, the lowest since January.

Head of Lampang Meteorological Station, Tiwa Panmaisi, said unusual climate conditions forced the morning flight from Bangkok to Lampang Airport to land in Sukhothai province to wait and see about the situation before it could resume its flight later.

On Saturday, the visibility was around 800 metres, while dust particles were measured at 200 microgramme/cubic metre, higher than the safe standard of 120 microgramme/cubic metre, he said.

Meanwhile, in Chiang Rai, dust particles have remained higher than the normal rate for several days, with low visibility of about 500 metres, forcing Mae Fah Luang-Chiang Rai International Airport to turn on runway lights for safety reasons.

Fire trucks were used by Chiang Rai Municipality to sprinkle water in the hopes of easing particulate density. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-02-26

[softgeorge]

Data from World Bank

Last updated: Feb 17, 2012

Aust 81.54 yrs Thailand 73.77

You are both wrong or both right The site I checked shows different. Agree to disagree.

You weren't paying attention.

The figures we quoted were only for the male population.

CIA Factbook figures for the TOTAL population are very close to yours.

Thailand: Life expectancy - total population: 73.83 years (3 weeks more than your source)

Australia: Life expectancy - total population: 81.90 years (18 weeks more than your source)

So we can agree to agree then....

Sorry

[theanimaster]

Every time someone tries to sell Chiangmai as a place with good, fresh, clean air I tell them "BULLSH_T~!"

The government can't figure it out. It is beyond their capacity to put 1+1 together. Farm fires, increased respiratory illness problems... Hmmm. Must be a coincidence. Also a coincidence so many are committing suicide.

[MESmith]

Every time someone tries to sell Chiangmai as a place with good, fresh, clean air I tell them "BULLSH_T~!"

The government can't figure it out. It is beyond their capacity to put 1+1 together. Farm fires, increased respiratory illness problems... Hmmm. Must be a coincidence. Also a coincidence so many are committing suicide.

And every time someone mentions the "burning season", I say bullsh1t" . The burning is 24/7, 365 days a year. How do I know - 'cos I live out in the cuntryside, in CM. But the rains lessen the effect.

[Time Traveller]

Maybe we should find a way where the BIB can profit from busting fire starters,that will clear the air....

The chance of that happening is about the same as the police finding a way to profit from busting people on motorcycles without helmets, or with babies sitting on motorcyclists laps, or motorcyclist going the wrong way, or motorcyclists riding on footpaths menacing pedestrians. The police already have a nice profitable racket of pulling over law abiding motorists at random, why complicate things by challenging the actual law breakers.

Edited February 26, 2012 by Time Traveller

[tropo]

Here it is being referred to as haze. In other reports I see smog. It seems more like smaze than smog.

Edited February 26, 2012 by tropo

[ExpatOilWorker]

Before and after views from our house.

Last year mid March.

Present day.

Holy smoke, it looks like some industrial waste land in China.

[webfact]

Haze spreads across north

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The thick haze yesterday spread across seven northern provinces and poor visibility interfered with a Bangkok Airways flight to Lampang.

The 70-seat aircraft from Bangkok had to stop over at Sukhothai Airport in the morning and wait for the weather to clear before proceeding to Lampang.

The aircraft finally arrived at Lampang Airport at about 11.35am, more than an hour behind schedule.

The Lampang weather bureau had issued an alert for a sharp drop in visibility.

"We have warned motorists to be extra careful when driving through valleys too," said Tiwa Phanmaisee, the bureau's chief.

The Pollution Control Department reported that the smog in the seven northern provinces had soared beyond safe limits. While safety standards call for small dust particles of up to PM10 microns in size to stay within 120 micrograms per cubic metre of air, the latest readings revealed worrying findings.

Phayao was up to 237.46, while Phrae hovered around 233.17. Lampang ranged between 210.21 and 173.21 depending on where the air-quality measurements were taken.

Nan, Chiang Rai and Lamphun were averaging 151.71, 151.67 and 180.42, while Chiang Mai was still about 176.54.

Worapoj Khunanurak, a weatherman at the Northern Meteorological Centre, blamed smoke from fires in the North and neighbouring countries for the worsening atmospheric conditions.

Chiang Mai Governor MR Panadda Diskul said he was trying to ask the Agriculture Ministry to carry out rainmaking operations now to reduce the air pollution.

"We had planned to wait a few more weeks to let garlic farmers harvest their crops first, but now the situation suggests we may have to do it immediately," he said.

Dr Chamnan Hansuttivejkul, public health chief for Chiang Rai, said smog could harm people's health. Common symptoms were asthma, allergic reactions, respiratory disorders and eye/skin inflammation.

Local administrative bodies should strictly bar locals from lighting fires to burn garbage or clear farmland, he said.

"Issue warnings first but if they repeat the offence, fine them under the Public Health Act," he said.

The law imposes a fine of Bt2,000 on people who start fires that cause a public nuisance, he said.

The Meteorological Department issued a summer thunderstorm warning, citing the moderately high pressure ridge that has reached upper Vietnam and Laos.

"Soon, it will come to Thailand's Northeast," it said.

The North will likely see rainstorms, strong winds and a temperature drop of a few degrees Celsius, it added.

-- The Nation 2012-02-27

[MEL1]

Re- post #43 : "Head of Lampang Meteorological Station, Tiwa Panmaisi, said unusual climate conditions forced the morning flight from Bangkok to Lampang Airport to land in Sukhothai province to wait and see about the situation before it could resume its flight later."

Is it just me, or did anybody else have difficulty reading that line? A tad too many 'to's?

-mel.

[Reasonableman]

Re- post #43 : "Head of Lampang Meteorological Station, Tiwa Panmaisi, said unusual climate conditions forced the morning flight from Bangkok to Lampang Airport to land in Sukhothai province to wait and see about the situation before it could resume its flight later."

Is it just me, or did anybody else have difficulty reading that line? A tad too many 'to's?

-mel.

it's hard to resume a flight earlier, bu there ya go.