Smoke, Smog, Dust 2016-2017 Chiang Mai

[EnlightenedAtheist]

What do you think of the idea of putting pressure on the government by posting these links into social media like Facebook and Line everyday? If everyone did this, it might get them to act as I am sure they want to keep the "amazing Thailand" meme going.

 

I belong to a few chat groups on Line that are essentially Thai. As usual, we get the 20 million "Good morning" messages with something beautiful like flowers and green fields everyday. Lately though, I have been posting a "Good morning" message with a link to the aqicn report for Bkk. I intend to follow up with a visual image of the dire report, which would be more effective than a link that one must click to get the message through. It was read in just a few hours by 140 people and who knows what they will do with it.

 

Let's do our fingers do the walking and act like Gandhi to create change. It is a start. Baby steps. One never knows.

Edited February 6, 2018 by EnlightenedAtheist

[heybruce]

I hate to run the AC when temperatures are so comfortable, but:    http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangmai/city-hall/

[EnlightenedAtheist]

8 minutes ago, heybruce said:

I hate to run the AC when temperatures are so comfortable, but:    http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangmai/city-hall/

You could use a decent mask.

 

Btw, so that Thais do not believe we are bias, European countries (with diesel emissions) and the US with fracking pollution have issues too:

 

http://publicherald.org/duquesne-university-scientist-says-states-water-testing-for-fracking-chemicals-cannot-be-trusted/

[heybruce]

16 minutes ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

You could use a decent mask.

 

Btw, so that Thais do not believe we are bias, European countries (with diesel emissions) and the US with fracking pollution have issues too:

 

http://publicherald.org/duquesne-university-scientist-says-states-water-testing-for-fracking-chemicals-cannot-be-trusted/

I'm not keen on wearing a mask in my condo, especially when I sleep.

[EnlightenedAtheist]

11 minutes ago, heybruce said:

I'm not keen on wearing a mask in my condo, especially when I sleep.

Oh! Sleeping. I did not know. Sure. I get it. Of course, there are those air filtering machines, but they are not cheap (about 10,000 B.). Not sure how much electr. they use.

[tyznd]

Unless for some reason it's not possible, the only sensible solution is to move somewhere where the air quality is better.  It's ridiculous to hear people say this stuff doesn't affect them - sort of like the chain smoker who is okay until the day he gets diagnosed with lung cancer. 

 

Sure there are a lot of things that can kill you, especially living here in Thailand, but why push your luck by thinking you are somehow immune to breathing in highly toxic particles and not just for a month or two.  For every day you suck in this crap you probably shorten your life a day.  Seriously, do you think it's worth it?

[canthai55]

11 minutes ago, tyznd said:

  For every day you suck in this crap you probably shorten your life a day.  Seriously, do you think it's worth it?

555 - 50% reduction. What U smokin' that the smoke got you goin'

[Ruffian Dick]

11 hours ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

Let's do our fingers do the walking and act like Gandhi to create change. It is a start. Baby steps. One never knows.

Does anyone know when one of these officials will show up in public to declare that Everything's Okay? That would be a perfect time to show up and shout Uh No It's Not.

[canopy]

The pollution control department has released health warnings here.  It's interesting they are blaming not enough wind causing pollution to accumulate. Remember that the next time they say it's all coming from other countries.

 

[mat999]

If you want your voice to be heard it might be most effective to go for public awareness and shaming with a smear campaign against Chiang Mai tourism.

 

I know someone coming next week with her elderly mother and aunt. She had no idea about the pollution, but all the travel plans are booked. I am guessing nearly all other tourists visiting don't know about it too. I feel it on my chest as I type and am using aircon just to clean the air a bit, it is colder outside. A day of this is way worse than smoking a couple of cigarettes. This is how my chest used to feel after a big long night out when much younger in smokey nightclubs and bars and smoking 20-30 cigarettes.

 

The tourism industry obviously wants to keep poisonous air quiet so they can earn money. This is greed over human safety, so it is fair game to name and shame anyone who is a big name connected to the travel industry as someone who is covering it up. With images of people looking bad in hospital and people wearing facemasks, then in contrast pictures of the chosen looking fat, carefree and rich. Maybe there is a big name celebrity who owns a stake in a hotel or something. Maybe certain officials get paid more when there are more tourists. Maybe this could be something the new King could be encouraged to make a project to turn him into a great figure saving millions of lives.

 

Newspapers love scandals, danger, death, cover ups etc... So flooding the internet with warnings about visiting CM could work if some influential people pick it up and run with it with headlines like "Top Destination in Thailand a Death Trap", "The 5 Billion Baht Tourist Trap which is Killing Thousands Each Year", "Columbia taken over By Chiang Mai as the Most Dangerous Tourist Destination"  (these arent true, just examples)

 

With some well cited research even a small press release may be enough to send to Haro reporters and some journalists on Twitter. For example, find a report which has the statistics for cancer in the region compared to back home, compare the air quality to China where it was well covered a few years ago, some facts about this pesticide smoke and anything else relevant that can add to "the horrors" unbeknownst to holidaymakers.

 

There are some people doing good work researching and suggesting alternatives. But maybe the government need pressure to take action. Having a Chinese person involved would be helpful to educate their tourists too.

[scotbeve]

Anyone know where to buy a good filter/protection mask, and a hand-held pollution monitoring kit? (CM preferably, BKK if needs be.)

Home Pro usually has N95 Scotch 3M masks. These filter out PM 2.5 particles.

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[scotbeve]

I drive in to Chiang Mai every morning from the south. From about Thai Watsadu on the superhighway, the pollution becomes noticeable. South of there there is very little.
Today, I was stuck in stop start traffic from Central Festival to Thapae Gate.
I'm blaming the current pollution on the cooler air and heavier traffic combination.

There's a lot of (small) local burning going on. Folks preparing land for farming and sales.

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[scotbeve]

Folks, smoking season is early this year.... Get your air filters up and running and try to wear N95 face masks.

Sent from my [device_name] using http://Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[keo]

Talk about locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. An absolutely pathetic attempt at solving the air quality problem in Chiang Mai.

 

http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/news/51-day-burning-ban-march-1st-announced-combat-growing-smoke-problem/

 

 

 

[CheGuava]

9 hours ago, mat999 said:

If you want your voice to be heard it might be most effective to go for public awareness and shaming with a smear campaign against Chiang Mai tourism.

 

This seems to assume that it's an easily fixable problem, but authorities are just unwilling to do it.   Or that it's a recent issue, and Thailand can easily backtrack to greener days, if only someone made the call.

 

It's not that easy.   And progress is being made.  Pollution is down compared to decades ago, public awareness is increasing and government is bringing newer air quality monitoring stations online with a PM2.5 capability, as well as defining a new and much tighter air quality standard based on the PM2.5 level.

 

At the same time, location, climate and weather patterns have a big impact. 

 

Public shaming and a smear campaign just makes you look foolish, to very little effect.

 

And remember what part of the world you moved to.  You can't just jump up and down and scream for Canadian air, and authorities will flip a switch and give it to you.

 

There are definitely things you can do, but a smear campaign isn't it.  Or at least realize that it's not Chiang Mai, but also the entire North, big parts of the North East, Myanmar, Laos, China, Vietnam, etc, etc. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2018 by CheGuava

[elephant45]

what about the land transportation department? Don't they have equipment to ck to see if....oh God never mind..  It will just get worse and worse until Thailand destroys itself then they will come crying like little babies for the WHO, USA, AUS Canada etc etc to fix it.Then they will destroy it again.

[LolaS]

I dont udnerstand why is this pollution. They dont burn in Mae Wang. Where this pollution comes from

[Ruffian Dick]

19 hours ago, mat999 said:

If you want your voice to be heard it might be most effective to go for public awareness and shaming with a smear campaign against Chiang Mai tourism.

Perhaps starting with a massively visited site like Trip Advisor?

[Ned]

I was told that it was coming from burning sugarcane fields down in Tak. Serious agri business burning is set to start here soon.

[EnlightenedAtheist]

On 2/8/2018 at 2:28 PM, CheGuava said:

 

This seems to assume that it's an easily fixable problem, but authorities are just unwilling to do it.   Or that it's a recent issue, and Thailand can easily backtrack to greener days, if only someone made the call.

 

It's not that easy.   And progress is being made.  Pollution is down compared to decades ago, public awareness is increasing and government is bringing newer air quality monitoring stations online with a PM2.5 capability, as well as defining a new and much tighter air quality standard based on the PM2.5 level.

 

At the same time, location, climate and weather patterns have a big impact. 

 

Public shaming and a smear campaign just makes you look foolish, to very little effect.

 

And remember what part of the world you moved to.  You can't just jump up and down and scream for Canadian air, and authorities will flip a switch and give it to you.

 

There are definitely things you can do, but a smear campaign isn't it.  Or at least realize that it's not Chiang Mai, but also the entire North, big parts of the North East, Myanmar, Laos, China, Vietnam, etc, etc. 

 

 

 

 

I disagree. It must start somewhere. The status quo is not a solution. Those who are complaining and using social network means to make people aware of the problem are not foolish, those people who are doing nothing are. If everyone had this attitude, nothing would ever get better and we would still be living in caves (Ironically, we would be breathing better air, mind you)!

[stament]

what's the air quality like in CM today folks?

[jimgilly]

bad -just like it's going to be for the next 3 months

[heybruce]

1 hour ago, stament said:

what's the air quality like in CM today folks?

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

 

Today is merely unhealthy.  We will see much worse in the weeks and months ahead.

[stament]

heard its bad in bkk

[Dipterocarp]

Just flew in yesterday. On the plane about 5 minutes before landing in daylight a large agricultural burn could be seen.

Huge smoke, open flames.

 

One would figure the Army would go arrest the burners.

[XGM]

41 minutes ago, Dipterocarp said:

One would figure the Army would go arrest the burners.

Where and when isn't a mystery. Had they wanted to do something about it, burning would significantly drop in matter of days.

 

There is also denial among many people I think. I was told by my previous landlord: "our neighbours, the burmese, they do the burning". Well. She is a highly educated woman, close to 60, who lived and studied in the US, and owns a good number of properties in Thailand. I guess she should know the facts.

[LolaS]

everyone is blaming Burma. How realistic is that claim?

[SoilSpoil]

7 hours ago, LolaS said:

everyone is blaming Burma. How realistic is that claim?

Just check the pollution maps. Its from within the country: Lampang, Tak, Nakom Sawan and Saraburi as main sources. Smog from Myanmar has to get over the mountain ranges first.

 

I heard the same excuses tody, its those pesky Burmese. The burning maps show this is wrong.

[stament]

This thread is out of date, says 2016-17.  ?

[TheScribe]

Today (13 February 2018) all the online information from the air quality sensors in Thailand have stopped. No more updates.