Smoke, Smog, Dust 2016-2017 Chiang Mai

[Berkshire]

3 minutes ago, elephant45 said:

I can see you are looking for an argument..see ya later and please don't respond to me anymore, thank you.

Not looking for an argument at all...but I do point out when someone is obviously wrong.  Sorry if that offends you.  If you want me to stop responding to you, then stop being wrong.  Otherwise, you'll be hearing from me again.

[keo]

On January 31, 2560 BE at 10:38 AM, user555 said:

Is it true that the government is taking significant steps to prevent burnings this year? 

 

Yes, they are unleashing their world class problem solving skills, so expect blue skies and clear views of Doi Suthep this year. 

Now that's sorted, they will move on to the road safety issue.

[nlimwa]

I found details on citylife - the ban comes into effect on 20th Feb for 6 weeks. 

 

There are local private organisations trying to help with their own initiatives; pyramid composting project and warm heart foundation both showing farmers how they can use their farm waste to make organic compost and biochar respectively. Solutions which provide education and an income.

[BernieOnTour]

On 2/10/2017 at 2:34 AM, nlimwa said:

hello

I was told by my Thai uncle that a 60 day burning ban is now in effect for the whole Chiang Mai province. With 100,000b penalty if caught, and 5000b reward for those calling the hotline and leading to an arrest. 

 

Sounds like they are getting more serious, however I still see plumes of smoke over Hang Dong most days? 

I cannot find anything on this ban - has anyone heard about it? Or where I can find details?

 

Thanks

Similar north of the city.

Every day I can see at least 2 smelly  clouds  not far away. However, they are doing it after dusk or around dawn.

[canopy]

Surely the worst is yet to come when the air quality index soars to a choking smog of 200 or 300 that make the news with hospitals flooded by suffering people, warnings from the government to remain indoors, masks handed out, flights unable to land, and so on. But what a lot of people don't know is the air is of low quality most of the year; essentially anytime it's not raining. I have been watching the air quality map this year and noticed in January it was ebbing over 100 which is twice as bad as international standards for clean air. Now in February it is ebbing over 150 in places which is bad even by Thai standards. It's unfortunate because northern Thailand enjoyed year round clean air from the beginning of time all the way up to our generation. Perhaps a key reason nothing is done is because when the rains come the problem disappears. Do little to nothing works like a charm every year.

 

[Sparkles]

Firstly how dumb to put a date deadline

 

Secondly obviously no one is taking any notice.

 

Its business as usual,  we may get rain in June and a promise it will never happen again

[jonwilly]

Woke up this mornin. My mouth felt like the sandpaper in a bird cage.

Then as I got up the first cough of the year.

Now as the sun has risen I can no longer see Doi Saket from my condo.

I can now officially state the CM Smog Season has commenced.

 

john

[GeKoSc]

I want to travel o Chiang Mai mid March; how about smoke in these days in Chiang Mai?

[Sparkles]

2 hours ago, GeKoSc said:

I want to travel o Chiang Mai mid March; how about smoke in these days in Chiang Mai?

See previous post.March will most likely be the same ,that's the way it is

[BernieOnTour]

I caught 4 weeks ago a "flu", and the coughing hasn't stopped until now. 

 

When checking the Air4Thai app, everything looked at least bearable. However, their particle readings are based on PM10.

So, when I recently crosschecked AQICN.ORG, I was more than astonished to see the historical data for the PM2.5, which were far from being healthy.

 

... ordered now from Lazada a Toshiba CAF-G50, based on a experience based review http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/tag/pollution/  -  let's see, if things get better.

[canopy]

16 hours ago, GeKoSc said:

I want to travel o Chiang Mai mid March; how about smoke in these days in Chiang Mai?

I learned at an early age that if you can see the air you are breathing then you have problems. This is the state of the air in the north for some time now. If breathing healthy air is important, wait until the rains start in around 3 or 4 months. It's going to get worse and worse until then.

 

[chiang mai]

On 18/01/2017 at 8:50 PM, cerox said:

About 10 days I woke up during the night and could not breathe, I fainted for a few seconds, this two times during the night and in the emergency room they checked my lungs with an X-Ray and said everything is fine, just my muscles are tensed around the shoulder.

 

I got better but about 5 days ago I have a strange feeling in the upper part of the stomach (the soft part below the chest). It now feels that I cannot breathe deeply and I got dizzy a few times.

 

Looking out of my window I do not see any burning etc. - I have been in Chiang Mai for a total of 9.5 months now.

 

My breating gets better as soon as I close the windows and turn in my air conditioning unit.

 

Has anybody here experienced similar things? Any advice would be appreciated :)

 

I cannot leave Chiang Mai for the time being, for several reasons, so this option is unfortunately out.

 

I read people here say that I need a special filter for my air conditioning unit and some kind of purifier.

 

I wear the N95 outside when riding the bike.

Rather oddly so far this year I haven't had a sense yet of any extremes of heat nor of any burning at all. If you are suffering already then you'd probably best be prepared to take some drastic measures come March because seriously poor quality air is almost guaranteed to hit us soon. I can only recall one burning season out of the past fifteen where the air quality was not bad during this period albeit I have given up watching the AQI numbers, for me wind direction is more important and offers more hope. Casual visitors to Thailand may however know differently!

[cerox]

It's my first year here.

 

Tuesday late afternoon I could see smog everywhere and my eyes were burning. Same for last week Sunday for the eyes but no smoke.

 

For some reason it has become better yesterday and today so I opened my windows.  Not sure what the reasons are, maybe my body gets used to it or the wind / no fresh burning etc. :)

 

@chiang mai: I remember you saying that Air conditioning only would be ok, but after a few days it really felt like the air is kind of stuffy in my room, although I used air conditioning. It became better after letting "fresh" air in. Maybe it depends on the AirCon unit or other things, I'm not sure.

[LolaS]

7 hours ago, cerox said:

It's my first year here.

 

Tuesday late afternoon I could see smog everywhere and my eyes were burning. Same for last week Sunday for the eyes but no smoke.

 

For some reason it has become better yesterday and today so I opened my windows.  Not sure what the reasons are, maybe my body gets used to it or the wind / no fresh burning etc. :)

 

@chiang mai: I remember you saying that Air conditioning only would be ok, but after a few days it really felt like the air is kind of stuffy in my room, although I used air conditioning. It became better after letting "fresh" air in. Maybe it depends on the AirCon unit or other things, I'm not sure.

 

wherfe did you see it???? i m here 3 years, this year no where

[ThaiPauly]

It's starting now. The mountain has a shroud around it, no clearly defined lines any longer. 

 

I don't know how bad it's gonna get but buy a decent mask to wear outside is my advice, and those flimsy ones people wear in hospitals won't cut the mustard, you really need to spend out on decent ones that will actually help you.

[LolaS]

good morning, beautiful sun near Robinson, it is sunny all morning, 

 

[Berkshire]

I notice the AQI website has been stuck on Friday for 3 days now.

 

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangmai/city-hall/

 

Wonder why?

[cerox]

@lolaS

There is smog around the mountain, you can see it everywhere around Canal road. One hour ago my eyes were burning outside and I could smell smoke starting at around 07.30 this morning.

It is just my personal impression.

 

[SoilSpoil]

55 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

I notice the AQI website has been stuck on Friday for 3 days now.

 

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangmai/city-hall/

 

Wonder why?

Stuck since February 17th.  Thats also when the burning ban started. Coincidence?

[cerox]

I'm curious if anyone has recommendations what to do about the eyes.

 

I only have symptoms with the eyes, so like today, when I go out, my eyes burn. I reckon there is not much one can do apart from limiting time outdoors or leaving? I didn't have that on Saturday/Sunday, so I think it is related to "fresh burning".

[caramba77]

Almost all Thai stations seemed to have stopped reporting last Friday as per AQICN website. Not sure whether this is a website issue (though other countries continue to be reported and 2 or 3 stations in Thailand still report) or a Thai based issue.

Frustrating as no way of telling the PM2.5 now...

Quote

I notice the AQI website has been stuck on Friday for 3 days now.

 

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangmai/city-hall/

 

Wonder why?

 

 

•  

 

[markcm19]

woke up with what feels like strep throat, friend of mine complaining of the same thing. I am guessing it is due to the insanely unhealthy air not strep... but won't go around kissing door handles for all your sakes in case I am wrong

[ogb]

This site is up http://aqmthai.com/public_report.php?lang=en

 

Readings at station #35 Chang Phueak have been consistently worse than station #36 in the city.

 

PM 2.5 has been at unhealthy levels for over a week now

[caramba77]

1 hour ago, ogb said:

This site is up http://aqmthai.com/public_report.php?lang=en

 

Readings at station #35 Chang Phueak have been consistently worse than station #36 in the city.

 

PM 2.5 has been at unhealthy levels for over a week now

Thanks for that. I actually didn't know that the manual report provides the PM2.5 values. They don't show up in any of the other easier to access interfaces on the aqmthai website, hence i usually use the aqicn.org.

Yes, the PM2.5 have been 'unhealthy' for a considerable time now - probably 2-3 weeks actually, apart for some rare instances in between.

Puts the whole smoke discussion a little bit into perspective, as that would primarily trigger the PM10 which continue to be 'moderate'.

 

 

[Berkshire]

2 hours ago, ogb said:

This site is up http://aqmthai.com/public_report.php?lang=en

 

Readings at station #35 Chang Phueak have been consistently worse than station #36 in the city.

 

PM 2.5 has been at unhealthy levels for over a week now

Thanks for that site...although I'm a bit confused on the readings.  I assume the AQI is for PM2.5 and the readings for today as of 2pm is 83 and 73 in Chiang Mai (35/36), which is respectable.  What AQI readings are you getting?

[caramba77]

1 minute ago, Berkshire said:

Thanks for that site...although I'm a bit confused on the readings.  I assume the AQI is for PM2.5 and the readings for today as of 2pm is 83 and 73 in Chiang Mai (35/36), which is respectable.  What AQI readings are you getting?

Not quite. The PM2.5 values on the AQMThai website are the actual particle measurements in ug/m3. These need to be converted to the AQI value. The most common converter method is apparently this one:

https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=resources.conc_aqi_calc

 

You'll find that PM2.5 values of 73 equal an AQI of 160 or a big fat red 'unhealthy'. PM2.5 below 35ug/m3 is 'moderate' and below 13ug/m3 is 'good'.

[Berkshire]

2 minutes ago, caramba77 said:

Not quite. The PM2.5 values on the AQMThai website are the actual particle measurements in ug/m3. These need to be converted to the AQI value. The most common converter method is apparently this one:

https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=resources.conc_aqi_calc

 

You'll find that PM2.5 values of 73 equal an AQI of 160 or a big fat red 'unhealthy'. PM2.5 below 35ug/m3 is 'moderate' and below 13ug/m3 is 'good'.

Interesting.  Then that aqmthai site is extremely misleading, especially with the green color bar denoting moderate conditions.  If it's really 160, then you're right, that's horrendous. 

[caramba77]

3 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Interesting.  Then that aqmthai site is extremely misleading, especially with the green color bar denoting moderate conditions.  If it's really 160, then you're right, that's horrendous. 

Well, the Aqmthai is indeed misleading as it only uses PM10 to calculate the AQI and chooses to ignore the PM2.5 - even though it is being measured. PM2.5 is considered far more damaging to one's health. Even more, the Thai website uses a far more lenient colour coding of what is green, yellow, or red. When other AQI sites would already show yellow, in Thai that is still a healthy green.

The Aqicn website is more aligned with the international AQI recommendations.

 

Until now I was not aware that the Aqmthai website does provide PM2.5 readings - but only through the 'Manual Report' option and then only providing you the actual measurement which you need to convert into AQI.

[LolaS]

I was at CMU all day, NO SMOG whats so ever

[ogb]

27 minutes ago, LolaS said:

I was at CMU all day, NO SMOG whats so ever

and the earth is flat....welcome to the era of fake news :)