Air quality in Chiang Mai worst in the world!
Smog in Chiang Mai
In the top ten cities with the highest air pollution stayed Chiang Mai in first place and Bangkok in eighth. The problem in Chiang Mai is the forest fires and the burning of harvest residues by farmers.
Air quality in nine provinces has now dropped to a level that is considered hazardous to health. Yesterday morning, a concentration of PM 17 particulate matter of 2,5 to 70 mcg was measured at 124 measuring stations. That is well above the safety limit of 50 set by the Thai government (the WHO uses 25 mcg). The highest concentration was measured in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai: 163 mcg, followed by Phrae, Lampang, Nan and Chiang Mai.
When looking at the Air Quality Index (AQI), which measures multiple pollutants such as PM 2,5, PM 10 and carbon dioxide, Chiang Mai ranks first among the world's unhealthiest cities. The air is even more toxic than in cities such as Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Hanoi (Vietnam).
Prime Minister Prayut calls the situation so serious and he will visit Chiang Rai on Saturday to discuss measures.
Seasonal smog has been a problem in the North for more than 10 years. It occurs from January to April and peaks in March, especially as the extremely dry weather exacerbates the magnitude of wildfires.
Illustration: Bangkok Post
What is particulate matter?
Dust in air refers to the collection of all particles in the air. is one of the most commonly used terms fine dust, often abbreviated to PM10 particulate matter. 'PM' comes from English and stands for 'Particulate Matter'. The '10' is an indication of the maximum size of the dust particles (in micrometres) that belong to PM10. Particulate matter (PM10) is made up of a large number of substances. The main component is dust particles formed in the air from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ammonia. A second important contribution comes from elemental carbon and organic carbon compounds.
Particles in sizes and numbers
Airborne dust consists of particles of very different sizes. The particles can have a diameter of 0,001 µm (1 µm = one thousandth of a millimetre) to many tens of µm. The air above the sea contains the fewest particles. This increases over land and even more in cities. During periods of increased air pollution, the number of particles can be even higher.
All kinds of fabric
In addition to particulate matter (PM10), other concepts of particulate air pollution include: the finer fraction of particulate matter (PM2,5), ultrafine particulate matter, coarse particulate matter, total particulate matter, aerosol, black smoke, soot, black carbon, elemental carbon, organic carbon. Part of the particulate matter concentration is formed in the air, the secondary particulate matter. Dust that is released into the atmosphere directly from human activities or natural sources is called primary dust.
Harmful effects
Fine dust particles smaller than 0,01 millimeters end up deep in the lungs after inhalation. They trigger an inflammatory response in the lungs. This can lead to:
- respiratory complaints, such as an asthma attack, tightness of the chest or cough;
- faster clotting of the blood and a higher risk of a heart attack, especially for people who already have narrowed arteries;
- aggravate arteriosclerosis due to the inflammatory response;
- less elastic blood vessels and an increase in blood pressure.
The more particulate matter there is in the air, the worse the complaints.
Sources: Bangkok Post, RIVM and Heart Foundation
About this blogger
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Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
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Today it was rough and angry. On departure at 8:30 from Mae Hia, south of the airport, it still seemed to go, but 2 hours later you could no longer see the mountains and especially on the superhighway (11) it seemed like fog.
The combustion air hangs everywhere, eyes sting and throat hurts.
In connection with the upcoming elections, no hard measures are expected at what cost to the farmers' votes. Police do nothing because then they won't get free rice or tea-money anymore.
Travel organizations should boycott CM, see how quickly something is done.
Indeed, the visibility is very bad, but if you are healthy you have little or no problems. Fortunately I am, so I don't suffer from itchy eyes and / or sore throat, and smelled combustion air yes once. Really get the impression that people talk to each other, and all (social) media are very happy to participate.
If anyone can believe that harmful air pollution mainly takes place in social media, then I have a huge question mark here.
Even if one does not currently have problems with a sore throat or stinging eyes, it is still very short-sighted to think that one is healthy and that these real problems cannot come later.
Reminds me a bit of a cigarette smoker, who finds everything exaggerated against all warnings, until he has to deal with the real health problems himself.
But come on,, Up to you” as long as you only notice that the visibility was very bad, at least your eyes are still healthy so far.555
I am certainly convinced that it is not healthy, but what I wanted to say is that if you are healthy now, you do not have to suffer from it at the moment. And yes, I have no doubt that it will bother you later, but I'm now 60+, so by the time it really starts working, it's about my time. For young people who have to live here all their lives, it is of course a completely different story, and therefore very much needed to prevent this pollution.
And our awake embassy in Bangkok continues to warn on the website against unnecessary visits to the rebellious south, where attacks are regularly committed (never on tourists, by the way)…. Have they ever heard of attacks on your health on the Wireless Road, from which Dutch lungs in Thailand cannot escape?
See the international weather site The Wheather Channel about air quality in the northern province of Nan.
It says in just as many words: Smoke. You breathe in smoke 24 hours a day!
Unfortunately not only Chiang Mai but rather most of the North of Thailand.
In Chiang Rai today it is much worse than Chiang Mai, and heating continues in the fields.
Many people who also burn their waste in the village, and usually do not take other people into account at all, look very strange when someone tries to tell them how harmful this is to their health.
After all, their ancestors have already done this, and that with today's Industry and the ever-increasing traffic, the dangerous Limit has finally been reached, most people don't even think that far.
Do these people have an alternative to incineration?
In my village the waste is collected, taken to a hole in the ground outside the village and burned there.
I don't really see the difference, except that the garbage collection truck also emits exhaust fumes.
The government will have to take the waste problem seriously, otherwise the problem will be unsolvable.
Last week it was quite windy for a few days, the result was that on Sunday evening I could finally see the top of the Doi Ithanon mountain again from my veranda, and the temple Wat Phratat on the mountain near Pasang.
I then thought luckily we've had the worst of the weather.
But when my spouse and I drove to Chiangmai on Monday morning via the road next to the Chiangmai lamphun railway line, we didn't know what we saw or rather didn't see.
It seemed as if the whole city of Chiangmai was on fire.
The closer we approached Chiangmai the closer the smog, what a mess, I can't find another word.
Also today here in Pasang it is smog smog and again smog and burning smell.
And what are the great leaders doing here, are now too busy with the upcoming Boersie.
Jan Beute.
Today it is even worse than previous days normally I can see Doi Kham towards evening Now nothing;It seems that the mountains have been taken away. Yesterday morning it looked like it was going to rain heavily, not a bit of clear sky. Close windows and stay indoors.
If you click on the link below - if clicking does not work, just copy it into your browser - you will see the fires that were observed with infrared cameras from satellites on March 13. I focused the image on Chiang Rai and then you see that in that province it is less bad in terms of fires than, for example, Chiang Mai. As soon as you look across the border, in Myanmar, the intensity increases considerably.
Much of the smog here in CR comes from elsewhere.
You can move the map yourself and zoom in or out. Right above you can enter the days you want to be displayed.
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#z:7;c:101.6,19.8;t:adv-points;d:2019-03-12..2019-03-13;l:street,firms_viirs,firms_modis_a,firms_modis_t
You have to copy the entire link I see, not just the underlined part.
We live north of chiang mai and have established the following.
The pollution is worst in the morning and we cannot see Doi Suthep.
It decreases as the day progresses and in the evening Doi Suthep is clearly visible and the sky is clear.
We come to the following conclusions.
1. Burning takes place at night
2. We don't believe everything comes from Myanmar etc. There are many claims here.
3. Thailand is a great country for the months October to January, but there are better countries for the rest of the year.
Cornelis, that NASA overview is fantastic, thank you. This shows where you should NOT be and that unfortunately includes Asia and specifically a lot in Thailand and Myanmar .. By the way, if you click on Today you will not see any Fires, so that means in my opinion that there is burning at night.
What has been described above is correct, burning eyes and sore throat and that every year.
The government in Bangkok only does something about it if they have to breathe the polluted air themselves, just look what a commotion there was when Bangkok had to deal with pollution, the world was too small, but if the pollution has almost doubled here you don't. I haven't read anywhere that a farmer has been fined (but I don't read everything) but I couldn't find it in the major newspapers. The problem is probably that big food producers like CP are the real boss instead of the PM in Bangkok, Money talks and the millions in the bank account are more important than the health of millions of people.
Thank you so much, Cornelius! Look, there you can see from space exactly where you should not be. Spread the word!
I read the Thai commentary: If you are healthy, you are not bothered by particulate matter. Thai logic. If you're deaf, you don't suffer from disco noise, do you? And if you don't come in the fire season, or in the festive season, it won't bother you either. Those farang only complain. As the governor in Nan said: rather Thai tourists, that will help them, because they keep their mouths shut!
The cars on the country roads in Nan drive with lights on through the clouds of dust and at Nan airport the visibility is barely 400 meters this morning. Cheers !
Composting is the solution here. There are plenty of Western companies that can provide the knowledge for this. Collect harvest residues and store them until the rainy season. Then compost and reuse as a soil conditioner. Look for grants in the west.
Subsidies from the West? Learning to share in the West, Guus will mean! Thailand is wealthy, with an annual economic growth that the West cannot match. Only the rich benefit, they fill their pockets and therefore do not want to change anything. That's the crux here. They do not know solidarity outside the family circle here.
Unfortunately, the Thai Government does not show everything.
It is taken over from the weather stations, which ONLY display the major cities.
Just an example.
Tonight at 20:00 I have the following measurements:
For Chiang Mai 193 (US AQI) and 136.8 (PM2.5).
For So Phisai (Bueng Kan) 196 (US AQI) and 143.1 (PM2.5)
2 years ago I lived half way from ChiangSean to ChianKhong (100 km North of Chiangrai) On top of a mountain with a very far view over the valley to the 'Golden triangle' west of ChiangSean. My neighbor was the principal of the local school down in the valley of Ban Sai (10 km away). She had almost daily contact with the Phuyabaan, the village chief. I learned that no rubbish was collected in the whole wide area and that the people had no choice but to burn it themselves. 90% of the population walked with a mouth mask and I thought, why do they do that in this clean mountain air? later I knew better and thought, they kill each other by their fires. The government remains in default here and therefore the culprit. If I heard chainsaws or Ax chopping in the area and assumed illegal logging in the mountains, I called the head of the school to have her take action but the answer was that it was no use because no one would do anything . When I even got scared because I saw fires meters high on mountain tops and even very close and knew that there was a strong wind on the tops and the fire could spread quickly, nothing was done. The government allows clear-cutting to take place there because people who want to work in agriculture but have no land can appropriate forest land, and eventually it will be burned clean and planted with maize. If you can demonstrate that you have taken good care of the land for 3 years and use it to earn a living, you enter the next phase and the government cannot just reclaim it. Here too, the government is to blame for using a system that is disastrous for nature. The head of the school owned a 60 Rai Organic Tea plantation and the neighbor from Bangkok had appropriated government land and put Mango trees on it and had them sprayed with insect repellent which blew over the Tea farm because the wind was wrong . I got my breath and called the head of the school and made it clear that with such actions in her neighborhood, she would lose her certificate of Organic Tea, within fifteen minutes a police car with officers stopped at the neighbors and it was spray finished. I notice during 29 years of residence that the Thai have generally become selfish and easy-going, but it is the government that is driving it all. I hear Prayud with his moralistic speeches on TV and it appears that he realizes that he has to teach the Thai a thing or two and give them insight, but let them first tackle the laws and behavior of government officials so that the population is offered alternatives, then only things can be forbidden and referred to. I now live 15 km south of Rayong near Ban Phe where a West wind usually blows from the sea and I often have guests such as an 4-year-old Dutch couple for 80 months now who could no longer stand the stench in Benidorm. Now they enjoy the clean air here and really recover. So not just from the heat alone. So there are still clean places in Thailand, but very few. Don't blame the people as long as governments don't provide a sound system.
Interesting, the story of this rentier, because he reflects his personal experiences.
It's not new. I keep hearing about Power, maybe time for People's Power! One thing is clear: tourists who care about their health should not be there in the north! Say yourself: You receive guests in a guest room, not in a gas chamber, right?