By Pratch Rujivanarom

As part of yesterday’s World Environment Day, the UN Environment Program Agency says they’re working with local partners in Thailand to find new ways to mitigate dangerous emissions. One idea put forward yesterday was the development of electric public transport in Bangkok’s klongs (canals) that could help solve two of the city’s biggest problems – traffic congestion and air pollution.

UNEP says a team was now working with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition as well as the Thai Pollution Control Department on a project to assess the impact canal-based public transport can have on air pollution in the city.

Bert Fabian, program officer in the Air Quality and Mobility Unit, says the international agency and its Thai partners are identifying the types and amount of pollutants being emitted from boats plying the klongs in Bangkok.

Fabian says Bangkok suffers annual bouts of severe air pollution and this previously unmeasured source may be a significant contributing factor.

“We want to improve the air we breathe but we can’t do this without the best possible data.”

He ventured that once the operators replace their ageing, polluting diesel boats with electric vessels, the city’s network of klongs would potentially offer a clean alternative and have a marked impact on both traffic congestion and air pollution in Bangkok.

Sonthi Kotchawat, a prominent environmental health expert, also said that discarding all diesel fuels used around the city would be key to tackling Bangkok’s larger air-pollution problems.

Thailand’s transport sector is the largest source of air pollution in Bangkok and a recent study found that vehicle exhaust fumes contribute up to 52 per cent of the pollution.

He added that diesel engine exhaust is by far the worst pollutant as the combustion of diesel releases the highest amount of harmful PM2.5, very fine particulate matter, and other hazardous substances. He also warned that the ultra fine, which is even smaller and more harmful than PM2.5, is generated by diesel combustion as well, which further adds to the health hazard of toxic air pollution.

SOURCE: The Nation

by Pratch Rujivanarom

Environment campaigners are urging the government to approve a clean-air act to solve the country’s chronic smog problem and honour citizens’ right to breathe clean air.

Dr Wirun Limsawart, a policy analyst at the Society and Health Institute and member of the Clean Air Network Thailand, said at a press conference there was no more time for debate over the fact of the seasonal smog problem.

“Everyone must work together, addressing all aspects of what has become a serious threat to public health and social justice. Everyone should get involved in devising sustainable solutions.”

The Clean Air Network released a “Clean Air White Paper” as a handbook for use by the general public containing information about PM2.5 particulate matter and related issues.

Wirun said the prolonged and severe PM2.5 pollution afflicting many parts of Thailand during the current dry season, especially Metropolitan Bangkok and the North, had left citizens suffering serious but preventable health impacts.

“The seasonal PM2.5 smog is a very significant problem, not only harming people’s health and wellbeing, but along with the authorities’ ineffectiveness in preventing and controlling the smog, worsening injustice in our society,” he said.

He said the problem became so dire this year partly because of the authorities’ failure to cope, so he called on the government to set out sustainable measures such as enacting a Clean Air Act and establishing a central environmental-protection agency.

“The primary reasons the authorities’ efforts are unsuccessful are the lack of a holistic approach in taking such measures, unclear and inefficient environmental-law enforcement, and the authorities’ bias by which economic development is given higher priority than environmental protection,” Wirun said.

“Unless we solve these structural issues, establish official smog-mitigation measures, improve law enforcement and come out with a Clean Air Act to use as a legal tool to safeguard the right to live in a healthy environment, we will fail to protect public health and Thailand will soon become a sickly society.”

Wirun said poor public understanding of PM2.5 was another major issue that needed to be tackled.

“The nature of the smog problem, the characteristics and health threats of PM2.5, air-quality measurements, the air-quality index and the pollution warning system can be quite confusing.”

SOURCE: The Nation

A medical report has pointed to serious health threats from air pollution in Thailand’s smog-prone areas, and the country’s far north north and deep south have been found to be hotspots for asthma and other major respiratory diseases.