Smoke, Smog, Dust 2016-2017 Chiang Mai

[jeffandgop]

I live in Land & Houses Maejo. The large rice field to the west of the moobaan’s boundary was set afire yesterday afternoon

[jeffandgop]

And today we had to close all windows at 11am as the burning started up again but this time the wind carried the smoke directly towards and into our neighborhood. We live about 3/4 miles from the field. I just vacuumed up the ashes from the area around the house and will have to vacuum the pool tomorrow. 

[canopy]

22 hours ago, XGM said:

Hmmm, probably from the same place the "protected air conditioned transport air" in Bangkok comes from?

 

There is substantially improved air quality in an air conditioned vehicle.  Anyone who has ever been in traffic in a tuk tuk in Bangkok will know this without needing to look it up.

 

[XGM]

1 hour ago, canopy said:

 

There is substantially improved air quality in an air conditioned vehicle.  Anyone who has ever been in traffic in a tuk tuk in Bangkok will know this without needing to look it up.

 

This is clear, I replied to the poster above me who perhaps found this point amusing.

I see you do acknowledge though some Bangkokians (or maybe most) aren't that well protected from the outside. Regarding schools, the schools I know (in both Bkk and Chiang Mai) have equally air conditioned classrooms (with the exception of Panyaden) as well as open-air sports facilities. So I found the talk about "air conditioned schools"  also strange. Or are you under the impression football fields, swimming pools etc are all indoor in Bangkok?

Edited November 7, 2017 by XGM

[EnlightenedAtheist]

I wonder if the reason for the smoke/pollution of recent days was not caused by firecrackers and those lanterns landing in fields and such and starting a fire.

[Ruffian Dick]

12 hours ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

I wonder if the reason for the smoke/pollution of recent days was not caused by firecrackers and those lanterns landing in fields and such and starting a fire.

You're pretty good at wondering.

[metisdead]

An off topic comparison post about smoke/smog in India has been removed.  

[grin]

It's not just crop stubble burning and pollution from outside blowing in. Here where we live in Padaet we get people burning garbage upwind almost every night after midnight. They manage to do this even in rainy season. The acrid smell of burning plastic is overpowering and if we don't shut our windows every night and keep the AC going all night then we all wake up with headaches. The smell seems to blow off pretty early in the morning. In cooler weather we just run the AC without any cooling just to filter the air. I bought a thermal leak detector and used it to find the air leaks. I fixed the obvious leaks but not much more can be done but replace all of the windows.

[canopy]

Usually the ritual of burning the day's plastic and garden sweepings into the atmosphere is in afternoons or especially early evenings and there must be millions of them across Thailand on a daily basis. But after midnight? That's strange. Usually no one is even awake then. Are these fires to keep warm? If so maybe you could donate them some blankets and coats in exchange for no burning. Even if they say no, at least they will have an understanding what they are doing is a problem.

 

[grin]

My guess is that they know this is undesirable and that they are burning this late in order to avoid detection. I was trying to make sense of that myself and was thinking that, well, I don’t know who is doing it because I’m not willing to get up that late and roam the neighborhood to find out who the culprit is. So maybe their ploy is working. I can’t even tell if it is a single culprit.

An even more bizarre idea would be that they think they are being altruistic by burning at night in order to not bother people in the daytime. Maybe they just have jobs and get home late from work.

Not being too facetious I hope, maybe I could get a drone and fly it around to figure out who the culprit is or culprits are and then send my wife over to ask them to please burn in the afternoons or evenings like everyone else. After all we are more likely to have our windows closed then.


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[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎11‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 7:03 AM, canopy said:

 

There is substantially improved air quality in an air conditioned vehicle.  Anyone who has ever been in traffic in a tuk tuk in Bangkok will know this without needing to look it up.

 

LOL. The "quality" is exactly the same as outside, but it's colder. That's all.

[thaibeachlovers]

The past 2 days have been marked by perfect visibility out of my window. They may be burning somewhere, but the air quality is better now that it was the past 5 months where I live ( near the night market ).

[XGM]

There's a lot of small scale burning taking place, here and there. Subjectively, I see little correlation between the AQI as published and what we experience here (Sansai, near Doi Saket road). It can be over a hundred, with clear and fresh air here, or it can below 50 with nasty air here, when someone decides to burn their trash close by.

[metisdead]

2 minutes ago, cerox said:

Hello guys,

 

has someone here been in Pattaya during the time of mid-February until the end of March?

 

I'd love to go there around that time, but I read some conflicting opinions about the air quality there during this time. Some people said it's not as good as Phuket or Hua Hin in terms of air quality, others said March was sometimes even bad in Pattaya or Phuket (smoke from Indonesia?).

 

Thank you for your help :)

 

As this topic is about Chiang Mai, please post your questions in the relevant forums. 

[OneZero]

Pattaya Jomtien is fine.  Definitely better than CM.

[cerox]

Thank you, I also just asked someone here who is from Pattaya and she confirmed there were no issues.

 

Back to topic / Chiang Mai I looked in my calendar I noted it down for 2017 when the air became not so good for me, it was February 10 - May 09. Just a guideline / opinion, I know everybody feels it differently and every year is different :)

[OneZero]

23 hours ago, cerox said:

Thank you, I also just asked someone here who is from Pattaya and she confirmed there were no issues.

 

Back to topic / Chiang Mai I looked in my calendar I noted it down for 2017 when the air became not so good for me, it was February 10 - May 09. Just a guideline / opinion, I know everybody feels it differently and every year is different :)

Good guidelines for you (since you are sensitive to the effects of the bad air),

Suggestion: Get some place close to the beach to take advantage of the sea breezes and the ocean location higher humidity won't be oppressive. 

That way you may want to extend your stay through May because prior to the cloud cover in the rainy season the hot sun / heat in CM can be more oppressive than the humidity near the ocean.  Get too far away from the beach however and the humidity without the sea breezes may not be comfortable for you.

[john0899999]

that other places editorial today 17 Dec 2017 is reporting a HELL OF A LOT of smoke on the way

[Ruffian Dick]

On 11/24/2017 at 4:30 AM, grin said:

My guess is that they know this is undesirable and that they are burning this late in order to avoid detection.

Or maybe to spread it out over the year.

[XGM]

Perhaps a naive question: is there a clear law against the burning? and if so, and one wants to report illegal burning, to which authority should it be done?

 

I know, Thailand and enforcement of laws don't really go hand in hand. But still, it's interesting to know.

[wolfmuc]

On 12/19/2017 at 12:07 PM, XGM said:

Perhaps a naive question: is there a clear law against the burning? and if so, and one wants to report illegal burning, to which authority should it be done?

 

I know, Thailand and enforcement of laws don't really go hand in hand. But still, it's interesting to know.

' a clear law against the burning '  -  may be, XGM.

'report illegal burning'  -  why? we've done it for centuries.

 

And, no irony, the biggest dirt in the air comes from China.

I'm sure. Increasingly these days.

There is (for some folks) an interesting website:

http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/

It should not be too difficult to obtain some information

how it works with PM2.5 and PM10 in Indochina.

 

And sometimes the winds will blow it to Thailand...

Btw, I checked and saved this site since the beginning of

November this year. It's not dramatic, just interesting.

If you would like to have a copy just send me a PM.

 

 

[JimmyJ]

14 minutes ago, wolfmuc said:

' a clear law against the burning '  -  may be, XGM.

'report illegal burning'  -  why? we've done it for centuries.

 

And, no irony, the biggest dirt in the air comes from China.

I'm sure. Increasingly these days.

There is (for some folks) an interesting website:

http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/

It should not be too difficult to obtain some information

how it works with PM2.5 and PM10 in Indochina.

 

And sometimes the winds will blow it to Thailand...

Btw, I checked and saved this site since the beginning of

November this year. It's not dramatic, just interesting.

If you would like to have a copy just send me a PM.

 

 

That site is already showing Chiang Mai as yellow and orange for the 2.5's (64 - 151 and currently 94 ).

 

Some sites say under 30 is safe, the highest I've seen is a site saying under 50 is safe.

 

December 26th and it's up to 151.

Not good.

 

(Bangkok 61 - 175 and currently 161 which is red/Unhealthy).

Edited December 26, 2017 by JimmyJ

[JimmyJ]

Vietnam is very bad also currently.

 

Unfortunately, no info available for Cambodia and Laos, same as last year.

[Ruffian Dick]

On 12/26/2017 at 5:27 AM, JimmyJ said:

That site is already showing Chiang Mai as yellow and orange for the 2.5's (64 - 151 and currently 94 ).

 

Some sites say under 30 is safe, the highest I've seen is a site saying under 50 is safe.

 

December 26th and it's up to 151.

Not good.

 

(Bangkok 61 - 175 and currently 161 which is red/Unhealthy).

http://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/

It's reading CM as "Good" with PM2.5 ranging between 46 and 156, PM10 between 14 and 70. I'll take that. If you have a vacant house, I'll be there in a couple months.

[canopy]

Yes, there was a splash of rain in the north yesterday and it erased a lot of the pollution in the air for the time being as is always the case. My area is still foggy/drizzly today. It's welcome; rainy season stopped 2 months ago and haven't seen a drop of rain for over a month.

 

[XGM]

13 hours ago, Ruffian Dick said:

It's reading CM as "Good" with PM2.5 ranging between 46 and 156, PM10 between 14 and 70

We had a couple of rainy days, that helped.

[wolfmuc]

Rainy day(s), that helped:

27-28.12. aqicn.docx

 

[Ruffian Dick]

9 hours ago, wolfmuc said:

Rainy day(s), that helped:

27-28.12. aqicn.docx

 

Why are you looking at China??

[wolfmuc]

Mr Ruffian Dick,

I think the situation in China will affect the air quality here in the north too,

of course depending on the wind direction.

My 'studies', this year beginning November 1, are confirming my guess.

Let me know if I should send you a copy, word docx.

(Knowing this will not change anything...)

 

[JimmyJ]

On 12/27/2017 at 9:27 AM, Ruffian Dick said:

http://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/

It's reading CM as "Good" with PM2.5 ranging between 46 and 156, PM10 between 14 and 70. I'll take that. If you have a vacant house, I'll be there in a couple months.

Actually -

 

 

0 - 50	Good	Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk	None
51 -100	Moderate	Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
101-150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
151-200	Unhealthy	Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion