Millions of people in Thailand are dreading ‘smog season’, as air pollution levels begin to rise at the end of the rains.
Bangkok and other areas of the country have already suffered a significant drop in air quality, with concentrations of PM2.5 fine dust reaching potentially harmful levels in recent days. Thailand ranked 14th in the world for PM2.5 pollution on October 24, according to air-quality monitoring website IQAir.
“The threat of PM2.5 is returning,” noted Sonthi Kotchawat, an independent academic and environmental expert.
The Pollution Control Department adjusted Thailand’s PM2.5 safe threshold in June to raise awareness of smog problems and spur efforts to improve air quality. The safe average over 24 hours is now 37.5 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) of air, down from 50µg/m³.
When levels climb higher than the 37.5µg/m³ benchmark, even healthy people are advised to curb their outdoor activities. However, current World Health Organization guidelines state that PM2.5 levels should not exceed 15µg/m3 for more than four days per year.
The Public Health Ministry reported that over 1.3 million people in Thailand were affected by air pollution-related diseases from the beginning of this year to March 5 – the last smog season.
Clean rooms needed for young kids
The problem is particularly severe in northern towns and cities like Chiang Mai, where seasonal crop burning has seen PM2.5 levels soar to the highest in the world for days at a time in recent years.
Aware of the threat to vulnerable young lungs, Chiang Mai University’s Research Institute for Health Sciences established a fund in 2019 to provide clean rooms for childcare centers and schools across the North.
“We focus on childcare centers first because young kids do not know how to avoid harmful smog themselves,” said Prof Dr Khuanchai Supparatpinyo, the head of the institute. “Also, it’s hard to find the right-sized masks for little kids.”
He also pointed out that children’s hearts beat faster and harder than those of adults, meaning pollutants they inhale can spread quickly through their bodies. Exposure to smog from a young age also threatens brain development, physical growth and even longevity, according to studies cited by Unicef.
Khuanchai also noticed that without support from the fund, childcare centers often struggled to protect children under their care from air pollution.
“For several years now, we have set up clean rooms by blocking dust from outside, purifying the air inside, and adding DIY aerators,” he explained.
Khuanchai said his institute hoped young kids could at least enjoy quality air during the hours they spent in daycare, thanks to support from the fund. As for other periods of the day, he said the institute was trying to raise public awareness so that parents would do their best to protect kids from air pollution and its harmful effects.
In Chiang Mai city, PM2.5 pollution has hit levels deemed hazardous to health for up to four months per year since 2011.
Long-term exposure to the fine-dust smog has been linked to premature death, particularly in people who have chronic heart or lung diseases. When smog levels peak in Chiang Mai and other cities, hospitals see more patients with related symptoms such as breathing difficulties, heart problems and eye irritation.
In Bangkok, where the PM2.5 problem rivals that in the North, authorities are also focusing on protecting children from the damaging effects of smog.
City Governor Chadchart Sittipunt says his administration is busy setting up clean rooms for childcare centers and kindergartens in collaboration with the Public Health Ministry’s Health Department.
Efforts to tackle air pollution
“We have already introduced risk maps to issue alerts promptly when air quality drops to dangerous levels. If PM2.5 soars above the safe threshold, we issue three alerts every day,” Chadchart said.
He insisted that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has been working hard to tackle the PM2.5 threat throughout the past year, in collaboration with the government’s Pollution Control Department.
The BMA has, for example, banned the lighting of candles and incense sticks at temples and shrines. Parked cars are also prohibited from keeping engines running on the capital’s main and secondary roads. Open fires are also banned. And during times of high air pollution, officials monitor construction sites for dust emissions.
“Our risk map has already identified hotspots such as industrial plants and garages. The map will help us respond faster to sources of smog,” Chadchart said.
However, others point out that such measures may only be effective if they are accompanied by rigid policing and penalties.
The BMA operates 722 PM2.5 monitoring stations but plans to raise that number to 1,000 soon. It will also improve the AIR BKK app, which enables users to check real-time air quality across the city so they can plan their activities accordingly.
Meanwhile the BMA is monitoring for fires in its agricultural zones of Nong Chok, Min Buri and Klong Sam Wa districts. It also inspects vehicles to prevent excessive exhaust emissions.
Loopholes for emissions
Environmental expert Sonthi acknowledged the concrete steps taken by authorities but said more needed to be done to fight health-impacting air pollution. He noted, for example, that even though the government is promoting use of electric vehicles, the number of diesel cars in the capital jumped significantly from 2.8 million last year to 3.1 million this year.
“Most of them also use Euro 4 standard fuel, which contains a high amount of sulfur,” he said.
The government has postponed enforcement of the Euro 5 emission standard from 2022 to January 1 next year. Worse still, authorities have not yet confirmed the new deadline.
“I am worried that it will be postponed again,” Sonthi said. He also pointed out that many government and private organizations had not yet replaced their fleet of vehicles with EVs.
Additionally, the BMA does not require all factories under its jurisdiction to install pollution-monitoring equipment.
“Only some factories have installed the equipment,” the academic said.
He added that the government had also postponed a complete ban on burned sugarcane at sugar factories that was due to take effect last year. The practice of burning cane during harvesting is thought to be a major contributor to high PM2.5 levels both in rural and urban areas.
“I am not sure whether the ban can be fully enforced this year because I have not seen solid support for farmers to switch to other means of harvesting sugarcane from their plantations,” he said.
Government part of problem, not solution?
Data compiled by the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) shows that fires damaged 9.4 million rai of national forest this year, emitting a massive amount of air pollutants. Analyses of satellite images also indicate that forest fires are a much larger cause of air pollution than agricultural burning.
Bunnaroth Buaklee, an activist who combats air pollution in the North, said that while the government may not be able to control what occurs in neighboring countries’ forests, it should be able to prevent forest fires in Thailand.
By Thai PBS World’s General Desk
