PCD: 'We ourselves are the cause of smog in Bangkok and not the neighboring countries'
The Pollution Control Department (PCD) is making mincemeat of two Thai professors' claim that the smog (particulate matter) in Bangkok and neighboring provinces partly originates from Cambodia.
According to PCD director general Pralong, they keep an eye on everything and also the risks from neighboring countries. It is true that particulate matter blows from Cambodia to Thailand, but it is blown by the wind to Trat and the Gulf of Thailand. The PCD is based on a calculation model for weather analysis from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Pralong says that the particles that cause smog in Bangkok come from local sources, such as diesel vehicles (52 percent), open fires (35 percent) and the rest from heavy industry and power plants.
The governors of Bangkok's five neighboring provinces have banned the burning of waste in the open air indefinitely.
The Thai safety limit of PM 2,5 particulate matter, 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, is exceeded in ten places in Bangkok and two districts in Samut Prakan and Nakhon Pathom.
Source: Bangkok Post
Professors, highly educated academic people who you can actually expect to have brains in them. Typical ostrich politics
When I read in a Thai newspaper what the professors said, I had to laugh and so did my wife. After all, the prevailing winds carry any dust from Cambodia in a southwesterly direction, so away from Bangkok.
Professors? Here they sprinkle titles like it's nothing. You cannot compare the level of university studies with Belgium. I usually compare it to the high school level. But it's as beautiful as all those awards they wear. Appearance is more important than academic knowledge.
That is why Trat, Chantaburi, Sa Kaeo, Prachinburi, Ubon Ratchathani, Nakhin Ratchasima, Surin have also been so badly affected by that smog… (not so). Idem pulls that wind very easily over the Khorat plateau. Incidentally, in Nov-Dec-Jan the wind was 28% E, 35% SE and 21% from the NW.
zie https://www.woweer.nl/weather/maps/city?FMM=11&FYY=2018&LMM=1&LYY=2019&WMO=48455&CONT=asie®ION=0027&LAND=TH&ART=WDR&R=0&NOREGION=0&LEVEL=162&LANG=nl&MOD=tab