Northern Thai provinces facing health affecting air quality

[webfact]

Northern provinces facing health affecting air quality

BANGKOK, 17 February 2016 (NNT) – Four provinces in the northern region are suffering from a health-risk concentrated airborne particulate (PM10) value reading, while authorities are working to disperse water into the atmosphere to bring down the particles and increase humidity in the attempt to control the situation, says DDPM.

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation’s (DDPM) Director-General Chatchai Promlert has revealed data from the Pollution Control Department (PCD) regarding the current airborne particulate matter (PM10) amount, that four provinces, namely Chiang Mai, Lampang, Lampoon, and Phrae, are now facing a high PM10 reading at health-affecting levels.

He said that authorities in the affected provinces had assigned officials to monitor the situation and prepare if the incident escalates. Initially authorities have been ordered to carry out water dispersion into the air to reduce airborne matters in parallel with efforts to control forest fires and haze.

The general public are advised to closely follow weather reports, and to refrain from burning garbage or agricultural waste. The public residing in haze covered areas are urged to avoid engaging in outdoor activities, cover their nose and mouth when going outside, and to drive with extra precaution as visibility is compromised due to the ongoing haze situation.


-- NNT 2016-02-17

[ukrules]

They deliberately burn everything and then merely 'monitor' and spray a bit of water on it ?

The general public not burning garbage will make no difference whatsoever to the large scale commercial burning which happens every year.

Do they think we're stupid or something ?

[Thechook]

Same old rhetoric every year, decade after decade but nothing is ever done.

[trogers]

Same old rhetoric every year, decade after decade but nothing is ever done.

Decades after decades and the same foreigners lament and not used their God given mobility to relocate.

[canopy]

The public residing in haze covered areas are urged to avoid engaging in outdoor activities, cover their nose and mouth when going outside

Imagine a place where going outside to breathe the air puts you at risk of a trip to the hospital. Where you are warned to seal all doors and windows tight and remain indoors around the clock for months. Told not to exercise or do anything strenuous. And we are not talking about a smoggy city, but the countryside of Thailand where the air is complete filth. No one could believe it if you told them. In the future the rural population will increase along with land encroachment and usage which means more fires and burning and ever worsening air quality. We live in the worst time in history for air quality in Thailand and yet things are about to get really, really bad in the coming years. I wonder as the needle goes ever deeper and longer into hazardous air just how much needless death and suffering will occur as they simply "monitor" the situation every year. It's already to the point that hundreds of thousands of country people can end up at the hospital on a yearly basis due to the smog. The country I am from you need a permit to burn anything and you can be sure to get a visit from the fire department and citation if you don't. So when I see farmer daeng choking a whole village with his useless fires it's quite a spectacle that the reaction is everyone just goes on pretending not to notice.

[clockman]

Same shit different year. Another hub!

[dancoffey]

With all these army bases full of young men sitting around with nothing to do, I'm sure they could monitor the situation more aggressively if they wanted to, but instead they try to make us believe that it is the public's fault and responsibility, when it is actually public policy to allow deforestation and the planting of corn that needs to be cleared this way. Sometimes they imply that it's hill tribe people looking for mushrooms that are at fault! A few years ago there was a bulletin board in Chiang Mai with Yingluck's picture and the governor of the province. Underneath it said in English "Don't Burn!" That wasn't terribly effective.

[Thechook]

Same old rhetoric every year, decade after decade but nothing is ever done.

Decades after decades and the same foreigners lament and not used their God given mobility to relocate.

true but even if all the foreigners relocated it won't stop what is happening, the talk, the burning and thais dying from respiratory problems. This is thai doings and has never been the result of foreigners.

[trogers]

Same old rhetoric every year, decade after decade but nothing is ever done.

Decades after decades and the same foreigners lament and not used their God given mobility to relocate.

true but even if all the foreigners relocated it won't stop what is happening, the talk, the burning and thais dying from respiratory problems. This is thai doings and has never been the result of foreigners.

A local problem to be addressed by the locals. Foreigners can only vote with their feet.

[jko]

It is only mid-February, and the worst is probably still to come. Most of us had hoped that the military government might do something, introduce very severe penalties, set up vigilante groups, etc. Most of us too however, feared that nothing would happen, and this seems to be the case, alas.

It is not just the physical discomfort, the loss of tourism revenue, the difficulties faced by international schools seeking boarders, and the tarnished reputation we already have for sustaining a total disregard for the environment.

Right now, many elderly people are already dying as a result of burning seasons already past. Those of us who are younger, and have already lived here for years, await our long term fate.

If this situation is allowed to continue, a bigger disaster lies ahead. Years after this post is buried in the ThaiVisa archives, countless numbers of residents -including some permanent residents who are reading this now- will inevitably develop serious respiratory illnesses, including cancer. It will kill many, mostly via a slow and painful death. Anyone who has witnessed a loved one die of lung cancer will attest to the dreadful suffering.

We have all discussed ways of stopping this, to no avail.

What we can do is support Marisa Marchitelli who has done more than any English-speaking resident to highlight the dangers. Her excellent self-explanatory article in CityLife is here, and the equally commendable documentary: "Smoke - A Crisis in Northern Thailand" is here

These links should go out virally to the world media. The wider the global publicity about the problem, the fewer tourists who visit, and would-be retirees who decide to relocate here, the better. When the economy suffers, and when the private and government sectors really begin to feel the pain, the more likely it will be that something is done.

At present is too easy just to breathe in the poisons for a month or two, and wait for the smoke to go away. And do the same next year, and the years that follow, until the health disaster becomes apparent, possibly with many of us as hapless victims.

[wabothai]

Yesterday on my way from Lom Sak to phitsanulok, many jungles were on fire and the mountains hardly visible. No agricultural land there.

Probably cigarets out of the windows.

Third world my friends.

[edwinchester]

Will not change until the people who actually have the power to change things actually give a <deleted> about what happens every single year.

[Jonmarleesco]

The heading presumably should read health-affecting air quality, since I assume residents' health is having no affect on the quality of the air.

Well, when - if - the authorities ever get around to imposing a ban on stubble burning, and other haze-creating hazards, the northern residents health would likely improve overnight. Fortunately, not living in the north, I don't need to hold my breath.

[elgordo38]

The public residing in haze covered areas are urged to avoid engaging in outdoor activities, cover their nose and mouth when going outside

Imagine a place where going outside to breathe the air puts you at risk of a trip to the hospital. Where you are warned to seal all doors and windows tight and remain indoors around the clock for months. Told not to exercise or do anything strenuous. And we are not talking about a smoggy city, but the countryside of Thailand where the air is complete filth. No one could believe it if you told them. In the future the rural population will increase along with land encroachment and usage which means more fires and burning and ever worsening air quality. We live in the worst time in history for air quality in Thailand and yet things are about to get really, really bad in the coming years. I wonder as the needle goes ever deeper and longer into hazardous air just how much needless death and suffering will occur as they simply "monitor" the situation every year. It's already to the point that hundreds of thousands of country people can end up at the hospital on a yearly basis due to the smog. The country I am from you need a permit to burn anything and you can be sure to get a visit from the fire department and citation if you don't. So when I see farmer daeng choking a whole village with his useless fires it's quite a spectacle that the reaction is everyone just goes on pretending not to notice.

They will throw water at the problem but never money.

[Jonmarleesco]

Same old rhetoric every year, decade after decade but nothing is ever done.

Decades after decades and the same foreigners lament and not used their God given mobility to relocate.

And in terms of northern air quality, that would achieve what, precisely?

[trogers]

Same old rhetoric every year, decade after decade but nothing is ever done.

Decades after decades and the same foreigners lament and not used their God given mobility to relocate.

And in terms of northern air quality, that would achieve what, precisely?

Staying alive...

What do you think you can do at the slope of an erupting volcano? Flee...or has the brain been too educated and overrides survival instincts?

[Thechook]

Same old rhetoric every year, decade after decade but nothing is ever done.

Decades after decades and the same foreigners lament and not used their God given mobility to relocate.

And in terms of northern air quality, that would achieve what, precisely?

Staying alive...

What do you think you can do at the slope of an erupting volcano? Flee...or has the brain been too educated and overrides survival instincts?

I may be wrong but a sense an attitude of I'm alright Jack bugger you. Also a lack of compassion for the inocent indigenous population. I can see a person Walking through a camp of starving Ethiopians eating a burger with fries and a large coke and saying hey what can I do if these people are starving, I'm surviving their hunger isn't effecting me. If they're hungry tell them to go to McDonald's.