High air pollution not revealed as tiny-particle levels left out

[rooster59]

High air pollution not revealed as tiny-particle levels left out

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
THE NATION

 

 

EXTREMELY small particulate matter, known as PM2.5, is affecting many parts of the country but measures of these hazardous particles are still not part of the official Air Quality Index.

 

The air pollution monitoring website aqicn.org yesterday revealed a surge in particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 microns – PM2.5 – to risky levels in many provinces in the North. However, the Pollution Control Department (PCD) reported that only Tak and Lampang suffered from air pollution higher than the safe limit from the seasonal haze season.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30307904

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-03-04

[trogers]

Rename the title to - "Retirees up north would not know what kills them..."

[DNPBC0]

It's good to see the Nation draw attention to the especially serious health risks associated with PM_2.5 and the need for substantially better public information about the levels of these particles in all parts of Thailand.  Particles of this size penetrate very much more deeply into our lungs and can even penetrate our blood systems.  They also travel further from their sources than the larger PM₁₀ pollutants.  Air pollution due to PM_2.5 is now (latest data up to end of 2015) the fifth major source of premature death worldwide and accounts for 17.1% of mortality from ischemic heart disease, 14.2% from stroke, 16.5% from lung cancer, 24.7% from lower respiratory infections (primarily, pneumonia), and 27.1% from chronic obstructive respiratory disease. In Thailand, it is the sixth major source of death and beats obesity - as it does around the rest of the world.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)30580-9/fulltext?elsca1=etoc

[SoilSpoil]

Protect yourself, the authorities don't take this problem serious and burning is still going on everywhere. Just drive from North to South and you'll notice bad air and smoke all around. Also Bangkok's air is particularly bad this year. 

 

Only in the rainy season we seem to have a decent air quality these days and with pain in my heart we are more and more discussing a move back to Europe.

[trogers]

1 hour ago, SoilSpoil said:

Protect yourself, the authorities don't take this problem serious and burning is still going on everywhere. Just drive from North to South and you'll notice bad air and smoke all around. Also Bangkok's air is particularly bad this year. 

 

Only in the rainy season we seem to have a decent air quality these days and with pain in my heart we are more and more discussing a move back to Europe.

Why? Prefer a quick bye bye to a slow one?

[newnative]

It's not just the North where the air is bad.  If any of you have ceiling fans, take a look at the leading edges of the blades.  They will likely be a dark gray in color with a coating of some sort of gunk.  That's what you are breathing.  We live in Pattaya and use white ceiling fans and we have to clean them every month or so when the blade edges turn nearly black. 

[4MyEgo]

9 hours ago, trogers said:

Rename the title to - "Retirees up north would not know what kills them..."

IQAir 250 plus will keep them alive for much longer indoors 

[4MyEgo]

2 hours ago, SoilSpoil said:

Protect yourself, the authorities don't take this problem serious and burning is still going on everywhere. Just drive from North to South and you'll notice bad air and smoke all around. Also Bangkok's air is particularly bad this year. 

 

Only in the rainy season we seem to have a decent air quality these days and with pain in my heart we are more and more discussing a move back to Europe.

IQAir 250 plus, Google it

[SiSePuede419]

"They will likely be a dark gray in color with a coating of some sort of gunk. "

 

Yeah, I just noticed that the AQI where I'm at is PM2.5 and Thailand is PM10.

 

Sneaky bastards.

 

I had a white ceiling fan in the Sonaran desert and it got dirty over time, too.  The air there got bad, but not as bad as NoThailand.

 

It all boils down to corn.  They're slash and burning up in Myanmar to grow corn.

 

Why not just fly down to an island until it rains?  

I figured out a couple of years ago (when the pollution was much worse) that a 10 day trip to Koh Chang from the north would be under $50USD a day, including airfare, taxi, bus, hotel, food.

 

Surely you rich blokes can afford that.  If you ain't got your health, you got nothing. ?

 

 

Edited March 4, 2017 by SiSePuede419

[darksidedog]

Overheard at the ministry of environment.

1. Air quality velly bad.

2. Wubbish! PM10 Okey kokey.

1. PM 2.5 velly bad.

2. PM 2.5? You think stupid peasant know PM 2.5? haha! Tell them air OK, They not know PM 2.5 if they choke on it.

[Awk]

While bringing attention to pm2.5 vs pm10 is good, I think both the article and the greenpeace guy talk a lot of nonsense when they insinuate the government is trying to hide the pm2.5 data somehow, but the "non-government" aqicn site somehow reveals this secret data.

 

- The aqicn site almost certainly is getting the data from the Thai government website (http://aqmthai.com/public_report.php?lang=en).

 

- Anyone can access the Thai government website and get the pm2.5 data for some, but not all regions.  A few years ago, pm2.5 data was not available for any stations in CM, but since then, it has become available.  Most probably it's a cost issue, not a "secrecy" issue.  If it was a secrecy issue, the Thai government would obviously simply not disclose the pm2.5 stations, and then aqicn would cease to be able to report it too (if it reports it now.  When I looked two-three years ago, it did not report it for CM.  I sent them an email at that time, telling them that pm2.5 data was now available for a station in Chiang Mai).  But they do disclose many pm2.5 stations, presumably at the locations where they have paid for pm2.5 measurement equipment to be installed.

 

IMO, everyone should go out and buy an air purifier.  I see them selling for as little as 4,000-5,000B.  Run it 24 hours a day in your bedroom/studio, and most likely your electricity bill will not increase too much either.  More like a fan, than an air conditioner.

 

[johnmcedinghburg]

We are so happy that we are next week after 8 years back I Europe
Clean air, beaches, no rubish not so much idiots in the trafic a country without double pricing as that would be discrimination, no 90 days reporting any more, no visa needed safe vegetables, drivers with brains whom will know what red tragic light means, shocking for us to find out that people stop at cross overs and much more
Good bye thailand all the best for you whom staying here


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[claffey]

Just use the Air quality Index website and you can access the 2.5 mg readings for Thailand...

[CGW]

The "government" is encouraging farmers to stop growing rice and start growing alternate crops, one of which is sugar cane, subsidies are available, how do they prepare to harvest it? by burning! so can we expect even worse pollution in the future? reckon so!

[canopy]

6 hours ago, Awk said:

I think both the article and the greenpeace guy talk a lot of nonsense when they insinuate the government is trying to hide the pm2.5 data 

 

Isn't the whole idea of the AQI is so that the common people can get a single number that fits onto an easy to understand scale? Thus, people don't have to know what PM is or dissect different aspects of air quality to form a good understanding.  It seems disingenuous for the government to release a fake AQI to the public that does not consider such a critically important factor pm2.5. The question is why are they deceiving the people?

 

[Awk]

2 hours ago, canopy said:

 

Isn't the whole idea of the AQI is so that the common people can get a single number that fits onto an easy to understand scale? Thus, people don't have to know what PM is or dissect different aspects of air quality to form a good understanding.  It seems disingenuous for the government to release a fake AQI to the public that does not consider such a critically important factor pm2.5. The question is why are they deceiving the people?

 

 

It's not deceiving if pm 2.5 monitoring equipment simply was not available in most regions when the Thai's created their own good/bad thresholds for AQI.  I'm sure the cost of pm 2.5 monitoring equipment has fallen, and probably continues to fall, and that is why it has now become available in more and more regions in Thailand.  The rest of the world also based itself on pm10 until recently, for much of the same reason as Thailand I'm sure.

 

Much more questionable is Thailand creating its own thresholds for what constitutes good/bad air, rather than adapting the WHO's thresholds.

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by Awk

[SoilSpoil]

2 hours ago, canopy said:

 

Isn't the whole idea of the AQI is so that the common people can get a single number that fits onto an easy to understand scale? Thus, people don't have to know what PM is or dissect different aspects of air quality to form a good understanding.  It seems disingenuous for the government to release a fake AQI to the public that does not consider such a critically important factor pm2.5. The question is why are they deceiving the people?

 

 

Cause some people are actually earning big bucks polluting the lunges of millions.

[canopy]

9 hours ago, Awk said:

 

It's not deceiving if pm 2.5 monitoring equipment simply was not available in most regions

 

The news story insinuates that in areas where pm 2.5 is available it is not being used: "(PM2.5) are still not part of the official Air Quality Index".