Bangkok haze and smog continues over the weekend

There is unlikely to be much respite of the air pollution shrouding Greater Bangkok this weekend. And the PM is urging people to inform a hotline of any vehicles belching smoke and fumes into the Bangkok sky.

The Pollution Control Department says the smog, which saw just about all of the 50 air quality stations hitting levels of PM2.5 over ’50’ yesterday (the upper limit for safe pollution levels as determined as ’25’ by the World Health Organisation), will continue over the weekend.

There were six “code-red” stations as of 7am yesterday morningand the figure rose to 10 “code-red” stations as of noon. Today, the situation has improved a bit but high temperatures and light winds persist, although many factories are closed today.

GRAPHIC: Air quality measurements this morning at 11am – https://www.airvisual.com

The Thai safety standard is 50mcg – which is double the World Health Organisation-recommended cap of 25mcg.

Air Visual is a reliable global air pollution website. Yesterday it listed Bangkok among the world’s top 10 cities with the worst air.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration governor Aswin Kwanmuang posted yesterday that the PM2.5 levels around the city could affect people’s health and urged everyone, “especially the elderly and small children as well as those with chronic ailments such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, to wear face masks and refrain from outdoor activities this period”.

The city’s utilities were implementing measures to curb the PM2.5 dust, mostly caused by vehicle exhaust emissions, outdoor burning, construction dust and ifactories, and was dispatching health officials to provide protection guidelines in affected communities.

Many schools were celebrating National Children’s Day (which is actually today), so the City’s governor instructed the district offices with high PM2.5 levels to tell schools to suspend outdoor activities.

Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has posted on his social media page… “since the PM2.5 levels were high, police should be strict about stopping vehicles emitting black exhaust smoke.”

“These law-violators would be put on a watch list for extra scrutiny when their vehicles went through mandatory inspection prior to the renewal of road tax and car license.

The PM is urging everyone to alert authorities about vehicles emitting dangerous fumes by calling the hotline 1584.