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Will a normal household air con unit filter out stuff like that or are the particles too fine? Simon

PM10 and below is too small for normal aircon filters. Go to Homepro and buy a bag of filtrette, made by 3M, costs about 150 baht or so. Cut that to size and cover your aircon filters, it works majic.

+1 for Filtrete. However, the irony is that the time of year that the black soot is a problem -- i.e. Jan/Feb -- is the time of year I can l leave the doors/windows open without air con since it is nice and cool.

Goes to show that there are people that rather live inside. Think they are right...don't see many Thai people outdoors anyway.

That is when they are at home...edited

Edited January 25, 201511 yr by hugocnx

Slightly north of Chiang Mai has been fine and clear thus far, I have no sense of it being burning season yet although folks in CM proper may have a different view..

I live in Sansai a northern suburb of CM. I expect cleaner air this March, because rice planting was delayed due to low water levels in the reservoirs. Farmers around me are planting now because their water comes from the Ping River, not from any reservoir. The government was dithering about whether to allow a second rice crop, but in January decided to allow planting for those who don't rely on water from the Mae Kuang Dam. This information comes directly from one of my rice-farming neighbors. Rice still growing in the fields means less burning. Note, "less burning" not "no burning." There will still be (illegal) burning in the hills.

Spend 15,000 baht on a really good samsung air filter. It has 6 different filtration systems, and filters out a lot of junk, and particulate matter. I have one, and it does seem to help.

So now you stay at home all day? 6 different filters and once you get out of your hut you have 6 deseases from the pollution. Give me a break will ya.

You lack an understanding of how the lungs work. They are one of the bodies most resilient organs. They regenerate all night, while you sleep, if given a break, by a device such as this one, and when you go out you are able to withstand all kinds of bombardment from pollutants, as a result. It is a singe air filter, with six different internal filters. Very effective. And I don't live in a hut. But, environmental scientists say there is as much as six times as much dust and particulate matter indoors, as outdoors, so your home can be a dangerous environment. Take your health, and that of your family seriously, or not. Frankly, it means little to me.

We shed 600,000 skin particles an hour so you are never going to get a particle free environment.

You are partly correct. Fires play a role but you are short changing the China factor.

Also, BKK and Pattaya are geographically below most of Myanmar and are not really

affected by SW winds from there. SW winds are the major factor in clearing out the dirt

from Pattaya when they return mid-March. Also, the rains don't begin in Pattaya until

late May or early June, yet the air is already clear courtesy of those same SW winds.

Spend 15,000 baht on a really good samsung air filter. It has 6 different filtration systems, and filters out a lot of junk, and particulate matter. I have one, and it does seem to help.

So now you stay at home all day? 6 different filters and once you get out of your hut you have 6 deseases from the pollution. Give me a break will ya.

You lack an understanding of how the lungs work. They are one of the bodies most resilient organs. They regenerate all night, while you sleep, if given a break, by a device such as this one, and when you go out you are able to withstand all kinds of bombardment from pollutants, as a result. It is a singe air filter, with six different internal filters. Very effective. And I don't live in a hut. But, environmental scientists say there is as much as six times as much dust and particulate matter indoors, as outdoors, so your home can be a dangerous environment. Take your health, and that of your family seriously, or not. Frankly, it means little to me.

Ok, can agree with you. Thanks for explanation.

'Hut' was a matter of speech

My allergies are really bad and here in Muang you can not see the mountains in the morning.

I just read that the jet stream is bring down that wonderful air from China .

This night it is especially bad. Thick smoke hanging all around. We are staying in Najomtien and there is hardly any day going by we are not breathing in some smoke.

Garbage fires everywhere.

This is really ridiculous. The smoke is so strong all our clothes inside the condo stink of it. Our eyes and throats are sore for days now.

Where the heck is this coming from and why is no one doing anything about? It seems that ist getting more and more crazy around here lately.

I am really starting to worry about the health of my family.

Edited February 1, 201511 yr by dendijk

I often do morning sport in an open place near my new home. Recently, what I see is horrible. The place is a sand ground for tourist bus parking. The workers sweep the ground with big bamboo broom and the dust is flying like hell. Then they burn the leaves they have gathered. This morning, I changed to another place, but met the same thing... and even more fires !!

We have been here for 4 years. This is the first time i and my hug have cough and phlegm. Yesterday,we bought an air purifier and the air at home is much better.

Pattaya has many open sand ground for parking. In the dry season, if comes some wind, it is indeed horrible. Why government not do some man made rain or at least, spray water around with the water trucks ??!?!?

Now I ride motorbike with sunglass and mask. It's time to stop being a "human body vacuum cleaner " )))

I have noticed the particulates in Pattaya have increased a lot since my first visit in 2004. Since the Bangkok floods a few years back I swear everybody moved to any city that had any infrastructure. Soi bukhao traffic all day. Soi Yume up behind what used to be Carre 4 is now non-stop traffic.

Interesting thread. Been living here for almost two years one year in Samut Prakan 8 months in Pattaya. I have had a series of sinus and upper respiratory infections. Taken several courses of antibiotics that seemed to have helped. Can't stand anymore though. It's a shame this place could be quite like a paradise. I planned to retire here. I don't know if my upper respiratory system can take the increasing assault o the lungs.

I am a physician. Particulate Matter, PMI Index, shreds the lungs. As we get older regeneration is slim to none. Childrens"upper airways become permanently scarred. And the cilia in the the airways, fine hairlike structures. kind of like air scrubbers begin to vanish.

I have traveled all over Asia, South East Asia and IndoChina since 1971. The "burning thing" boggles the mind...

I had major lung-surgeries a little while ago in Europe. Non-smoker. The pathologist actually came to my room to inquire where I was living. When I told him in Thailand/Pattaya he told me: "OK, now I understand. Your tissue samples show, as if you had worked in a coal mine for 20 years."

These days I use a mask to protect what is left of my lungs, driving my bikes. But does it help? Seeing more and more people with masks in Pattaya & BKK. I am shocked to see parents with babies in their strollers parade along Soi Boukao, Beach Rd. etc., with black exhaust fumes blowing right into their kids face.

Have a nice Sunday. MS>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis

Good news maybe. We went on a government sponsored bike ride this morning in Muang Lamphun. Everyone received and wore a tee shirt that said STOP BURNING in Thai and English. Effective Feb 1 there is a 3 month burning ban in effect. Couldn't say what particular provinces are affected but the northern ones for sure. Violators will be fined. We will see but someone thought that is why people were burning early this year.

Breathing is such a bummer.