Smog in Thailand: 3.238 fires, mostly in the north
(ramoonm / Shutterstock.com)
1.334 fires were counted in northern Thailand last Saturday. Across the country, 3.238 fires have been identified using satellite imagery provided by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency.
Mae Hong Son in the North is the province with the most fires (340), followed by Udon Thani (209) and Tak, also in the North (205). The concentration of PM2,5 in Mae Hong Son was 96 mcg yesterday, almost double the safety limit of 50 mcg used by Thailand and four times the safe value according to the WHO.
Most fires are started by farmers in order to acquire more agricultural land, crop residues are also burned. It is an annual recurring problem.
In Lampang province, fires are even raging in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. In one day, 13 rai of a forest was destroyed, including 7 rai of forest of Tham Pa Thai National Park. The concentration of PM2,5 is normal, but the governor expects it to rise again this week.
Director-General Monton of the DDPM announced yesterday that two helicopters have been deployed to fight fires in inaccessible mountain areas.
Source: Bangkok Post
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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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Is it not possible to give the owners and/or farmers of those reed plantations a hefty fine…….?
I regularly cycle near Hua Hin (near Webster University) and regularly see pieces of land that have been on fire during the night hours. Sometimes it is not too loud, you have to close windows and doors all night to enjoy a normal night's sleep.
It is very easy to hand out fines. Take a picture, and register coordinates and then find out who owns the country and fine it?
It seems so simple, or can we not complain about this?
In that case, there must be a red-handed capture or a violation recorded by camera.
Otherwise, the owner of the plot will simply deny and say that rascals threw a cigarette in the field or something
So you can reverse it.
Just make sure these rascals don't throw a cigarette in the field by means of surveillance.
A little awareness wouldn't hurt. But it can't be that only foreigners suffer from it, can it? The Thai must also cough the crap out of himself, right?
If only it were that easy. I live in a moo job and my closest neighbor is a farmer with land who almost every night finds it necessary to set fire to part of his mess. Rubber products in particular stink for an hour in the wind. The neighborhood committee has raised this several times in the past with the municipality, but they do nothing about it. I usually use air conditioning at night and hope that it still filters a bit, otherwise it will be possible for me to visit the hospital frequently with a lung condition, I'm afraid. Yes, it's all possible in Thailand, that freedom man cannot do without.
Can't complain about is culture.
Last week a fire truck was at our door in the evening.
The fire went in on the other side and they were afraid that the wind would spread the fire.
Firefighters were happy with the extra and the whiskey from the cane sugar owner.
The police also sometimes get pushed around so everyone is happy.
Only not that stupid farang who doesn't want to understand the culture.
So in the morning all black snow sprayed clean with a smile.
If the police would do their job yes, but they only work if they get some pocket money.
Frank, everything, fines are also possible. But it remains limited to a possibility. Enforcing laws and regulations is apparently not common practice in Thailand.
Last Friday it was so beautiful near Chiang Rai that I told my wife that I had never seen the mountains so clearly at this time of year.
Unfortunately it was already over a day later, and today we already have almost exactly the Smog that we regret almost every year.
The sad thing is, and that will almost be a popular form of anti-information, that many Thai people do not even realize how dangerous this particulate matter actually is.
If you listen to the government in other years, and now also after the government, a face cloth, regular sprinkling of water, and other nonsense would already bring relief, because they themselves seem to think of no other conclusive measure.
Whoever thought that this phenomenon of air pollution only occurs in the Northern provinces, they would if they were from 15 Jan. to 23 Jan. had been to Pattaya or Hua Hin before, talk differently.
During my short vacation week in Pattaya, around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the sun completely disappeared behind a thick cloud of smog, which the Thai beach chair rental lady, not knowing any better, said, Fon sjü tok” (rain is coming).
This sunless phenomenon repeated itself almost every afternoon, so that I asked the beach chair lady a bit sarcastically, if rain was on the way again?
Many do not understand the problem at all and, like the stately government officials, will only wake up when more and more tourists stay away because of this.
Depart from Chiang Rai soon for rainy season in Indonesia and come back to CR in July.
Lovely rainy season in South East Asia.
Frank,
then that police officer can no longer ask for tea money for other "favors"
Not only that, but also entire pieces of roadside that are burned down (and indeed rice fields,) In the three months that I was here, there have only been two / three days that air4thai indicated the air as very clean (blue) Today green and then allowed you are already happy. .35ugr,/m3. On the one blue day (the night before, the air smelled wonderfully pure!!), the neighbor thought it necessary to burn his junk. Straight to my apartment…
The air pollution would be a reason for me not to live here (Ubon Ratchathani area and Isaan area above) ...
Where is the cleanest place in Thailand? Who else keeps track of that?
The result is that many people walk around with lung complaints. Haha yes the neighbor rattles off!
I am not complaining about that, but I am complaining about the people who are exposed to the smoke day in and day out. Especially the children who (given their height) in the villages and towns catch even more exhaust fumes.
Only the government can support cooperatives that manage the agricultural machinery through subsidies.
Farmers can no longer compete with countries such as Vietnam .. and opt for the cheapest solution .
As a relatively wealthy falang I have no judgment on that .
Evolution is merciless and will judge and that will lead to mass extinction of the highest animal species. Due to increasingly difficult to control diseases, floods and famine.
Unfortunately the rich west is the last to turn .. Although you never know ..
Go to sleep peacefully…
As a farang you apparently have to accept everything regarding air pollution and smog.
We as Dutch people are of course very good at that.
All understanding for the so-called misery of the other and how difficult the farmers have it or not.
If that is at the expense of their health, that is their problem, but if that is at the expense of the health of the farang, then something is very wrong.
Cleaning things up with a smile, yes.
You always have a choice.
You wouldn't knowingly risk your health, would you?!
But they have willingly and knowingly gone to live in Thailand!! Many things are taken as they come. The hundreds of road casualties around Songkran, the farmers who are not helped by the government to look for alternatives and to use them, the resignation of the Thai loom as problems that concern annually recurring phenomena. That is why my wife and I will never live permanently in Thailand, but keep it limited to 5 – 7 months / year.
Yes, we would like to do that too, 5-7 months, but my Thai wife takes care of her father who can no longer take care of himself.
Experienced such a fire twice this week with us in the Isan. Dozens of local residents are putting out the fire with buckets and garden hoses. Without that help our house would have burned down and two days later the same story with the neighbor. Everyone was furious and the perpetrators hid away for half a day. You can see that the outrage is increasing along with the broadcasts of PBS3. There are daily reports about the fires and particulate matter problems. Hopefully there will be a turnaround and ingrained habits will change after all. Hope brings life.
Yes, there is more awareness through some media about the harmful consequences of lighting a fire for public health and the environment. That is a favorable development.
However, the burning of roadsides, wooded edges, fallow land, rice straw and sugar cane continues unabated. If you enter the rice fields at night in the provinces of Nakon Sawan, Pichit, Phitsanulok, Uttaradit, Sukothai in December and January, you will see a fairytale spectacle. It's like the whole country is on fire. You can see fires as far as the eye can see. I have the impression that burning even increases with age.
Now that the rice fields are being sown again, the burning of the withered leaves of sugar cane continues. The emissions will now be supplemented by burning forests on hill ranges and mountain flanks, especially in the more wooded northern provinces.
Local authorities (also the brown men of the police and local chiefs of the green coats) know all these pyromaniacs by name and surname. But there is little or no enforcement. They know each other.
Air here belongs to everyone and nobody. So the average Thai and its leaders don't care. Private interests weigh much more heavily.
And who expects this government and its “face masks Westerdam” minister of public health to roll out a rigorous enforcement policy … who believes in fairy tales.
And why aren't the arsonists punished???
Because 'enforcement' is not a priority in Thailand – and I say it way too nicely!
What is the government doing about this? Indeed nothing. Here the local police don't do anything either unless you call them then they come and look but there you stand as a traitor. Police are more concerned about those who do not wear a helmet or who drive through an orange or red light. They just have to look in the sky and you can see the black smoke covering the sky so how easy is that to track it down. If Thailand does not want to do anything about all those combustions and all those particulate matter, the WHO should impose a hefty fine on them, otherwise they will never learn here.