Patong Mayor hands out useless, cheap face-masks
In a shameless PR stunt, the Patong Mayor Chalermluck Kepsup yesterday wandered along the Patong Beach foreshore handing out ineffective cheap paper face masks to bemused locals and tourists. The beach-walk was in response to the current onset of poor air quality caused by by the intentionally-lit plantation fires on northern Indonesian islands.
Whilst the local media took up the opportunity to follow along at the Mayor’s invitation, the only real beneficiaries of the shuffle along the Patong were the pharmacies who sold the cheap clinical face-masks. The masks handed out are routinely used by nursing staff in hospitals to prevent infected air-borne droplets getting into their respiratory systems and cannot filter out the microscopic 2.5 micron smoke particles.
The mayor was poorly informed in this case.
The masks being handed out would do nothing to stop wearers breathing in the potentially harmful 2.5 micron particles that are measured in the air pollution readings. Phuket’s air quality has improved from yesterday, dropping to 151, from 184, still a lot higher than the upper safety level of 50, set by the World Health Organisation.
PHOTOS: Phuket Hot News
