Governor: "there will be air pollution this coming year" Safety zones proposed

[jko]

From the Chiang Mai Governor:
Full article from CityNews here

 

"For this coming dry season, the governor asks all available organisations and businesses, from the governmental and private sectors, including hotel entrepreneurs, restaurants, schools, universities, and temples to help provide safety zones as shelter from the air pollution in case crises happen. Relevant information will be given to both residents and tourists to find safe areas.

 

All these are measures to gain trust in tackling problem, mitigate future health problems and minimise impact on tourism and the economy. Although it is accepted that there will be air pollution this coming year, providing true and real data informing the public will gain people’s trust that tourists can still come to Chiang Mai."

 

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

=

[worgeordie]

So they are given in,even before the burning season has begun,

Get onto Alibaba and order more leaf blowers,like i have said 

before get the Police off the road blocks, get the Army on maneuvers 

and any volunteers,up in the hills,they been there is going to do

more to catch the arsonists,than monitoring the situation from

an office in Chiang Mai, any arsonist arrested gets a long prison

sentence,they need to be proactive,not trying to put out the fires

once the burning starts. the health of citizens and welfare of

businesses has to taken very seriously.....but it sounds like they

have already given in..cough...cough.

regards worgeordie

[ratcatcher]

Governor: "there will be air pollution this coming year" Safety zones proposed.

 

ratcatcher "There will be traffic accidents every day on Thai roads." Slower speeds proposed.

 

"And the sun will rise in the east and set in the west."  Polar realignment proposed.

[MisterBleach]

If the burning next year is worse than it was this year in 2019, still this will not be much of a problem for me.

 

I have downsized my abode, which means less volume of air to filter.  Also, I have stockpiled many respirators.

 

Even today, in Chiang Mai, the AQI was about 80 to 90.

 

This is not a problem caused by Chiang Mai, and not a problem solely caused by burning in Thailand.

 

In fact, this is an intractable problem which has no good near-term solution.

 

Therefore, the best strategy for individuals is to prepare now, and install high-quality air purifiers in home of small size, and then to hope there are no power failures of long duration, which there usually are not.

 

No matter how bad the air might become next year, it still will not be as bad as many cities in both India and China, for example.

 

No doubt, it will still require years to gradually solve this problem, and we do know, from experience, that this problem will eventually be solved.

 

So, breathe easy, and take it easy, and keep your 3M respirators close.

 

 

[brommers]

Mister Bleach has a practical response to the incompetent authorities but he is fortunate. Many Thai people do not have the financial ability to buy high quality air purifiers and they also work outdoors in jobs that make wearing effective masks virtually impossible from a practicality and cost angle. So the government is knowingly allowing them to be poisoned. Last burning season there was already a backlash from such citizens and it will only get stronger.

 

As for other cities being worse than CM, he is wrong. Day after day Chiang Mai was the most polluted city in the world by a wide margin. At the moment conditions are not too bad but there is a noticeable variation in pollution levels in different parts of the city, with a variation of up to 30 points overall yesterday. Until those "in charge" get off their fat asses and actually do something instead of pontificating we are doomed to live in high pollution conditions.

[saengd]

Yes, early preparation is one of the keys, buy your filtrete now rather than try to buy when it's out of stock. Oddly, we bought three 3M masks yesterday, 106 baht, the price will near double as time drags on. It's hard to imagine the air quality here being worse than it was last year, last year was the most horrific for us in 20 years.

[boonrawdcnx]

One cannot even start to contemplate the stupidity of this statement !
After making it into the No 1 spot of most polluted city in the world in 2019 I think the governor has no idea how the world today connects in an instance and how fast negative PR like this travels all over the world!
I think the governor has no idea how health and environmental conscience young people around the world are today while he is living in his own little bubble here not knowing what is going on in the outside world.
One more season of this burning mayhem and he won’t need any “safe zones for tourists” as Chiang Mai and the North will be automatically associated with being dangerous for your health and people will avoid it like the plague.
Or does he think people are that stupid and will book a holiday to come here to breath the wonderful toxic air?
The same people are burning in the same places every year setting entire mountain ranges in fire - so what does this country have an army for ? Just to waste our taxes and stage coups ?

If they can’t catch the arsonists when they start the fires then catch them when they come back to collect their loot in form of mushrooms and plants - and put them in prison for poisoning us out of pure greed!
They don’t even have planes to extinguish the fires but obviously their is plenty of money for useless military toys nobody really needs.

The pathetic announcement and excuse that “their will be air pollution this coming year” without announcing concrete measures how to prevent and showing readiness how to fight the next pollution crises just shows the incompetence and inability of being pro-active of this government on every level !

Year after year all we hear is useless words without action! And finally when we all choked for months on the toxic air the head clown from Bangkok will fly up again and “order” it all stopped within 7 days - because he has no idea what to do and he doesn’t give a damn either.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Thailand]

Incompetence personified.

[meechai]

Simple solution

 

Any property found ablaze becomes confiscated & the property of the State ????

 

[Thailand]

4 hours ago, meechai said:

Simple solution

 

Any property found ablaze becomes confiscated & the property of the State ????

 

The state owns most of the properties that are burning.

[Samuel Smith]

Time for a new Governor ????

[NotEinstein]

What exactly are these "Safe zones" that the man in charge is proposing at restaurants, schools, universities, and temples?

 

Is he funding some industrial scale air purification in sealed buildings?

 

Do tell....

[brommers]

Here we are at 9pm on Friday and CM has leapt from below 50th into the top 10 globally in the space of 5 hours, with a pm 2,5 of 66 which is way above the WHO maximum of 25 & even above the slack Thai maximum of 50.

 

Just shows you how the authorities have absolutely no grip on the situation. So plan for a 6 month pollution season! 

[moontang]

I just checked Agoda for a room next Sunday in CM.. I have a 1.40 credit.. some of the hostels are showing 0 dollars per night.  You couldn't pay me to stay in a CM backpacker dump, but eventually I have a little unfinished business in my former home.  My brother in law works as an engineer at 3M.  I asked about gas masks, even thinking a donation to a local school here in BKK, would show good will.  He said their company store prices aren't allowed to sell for less than Walmart, unless it is a discontinued item, and those are the last things 3M will be discontinuing.  But, it appears that the hotels will fare the worst, as it is much easier for restaurants to scale down, or simply close.  Same with the tour guides, and sole proprietorship.. Construction and finance will suffer, but that is more of a macro issue.  It is obvious the farang are sensitive to pollution.  Less clear is how it affects the flag men, and their soldiers.  Their numbers may be down, but that, too, may be more of a macro thing.. and there are so many more yet to come out of their cage.  Never seen a group so unsophisticated, when it comes to food and drink, which is a bad thing for locals.  Analyst like to equate economic crisis in terms of baseball innings.. this one is still in the first inning.  The next few innings may bring boarded up businesses, and elimination of flights.  Add some scenes of sick kids piled into government hospital emergency rooms, and it will start snowballing.  The first thing to do is keep it from getting worse, and so far, the men in polyester suits have not been able to contain the damage.  Kind of like the reports on the California wild fires... We are happy to report, the xxxx Fire has now successfully been 25% contained... doesn't really offer much assurance when you can see the flames from your back porch.  At least you can enjoy a good bottle of wine, during the burn and smoke something besides the air. 

[Vacuum]

Heads should roll!

[dcnx]

On 10/24/2019 at 10:55 AM, MisterBleach said:

No matter how bad the air might become next year, it still will not be as bad as many cities in both India and China, for example.

What universe are you living in?

 

1) That’s about the dumbest thing you could possibly say about the situation. 

 

2) Chiang Mai was THE worst polluted city IN THE WORLD more than once last year, beating out every city in China and India.

 

 

 

[Pravda]

On 10/24/2019 at 11:55 AM, MisterBleach said:

If the burning next year is worse than it was this year in 2019, still this will not be much of a problem for me.

 

I have downsized my abode, which means less volume of air to filter.  Also, I have stockpiled many respirators.

 

Even today, in Chiang Mai, the AQI was about 80 to 90.

 

This is not a problem caused by Chiang Mai, and not a problem solely caused by burning in Thailand.

 

In fact, this is an intractable problem which has no good near-term solution.

 

Therefore, the best strategy for individuals is to prepare now, and install high-quality air purifiers in home of small size, and then to hope there are no power failures of long duration, which there usually are not.

 

No matter how bad the air might become next year, it still will not be as bad as many cities in both India and China, for example.

 

No doubt, it will still require years to gradually solve this problem, and we do know, from experience, that this problem will eventually be solved.

 

So, breathe easy, and take it easy, and keep your 3M respirators close.

 

 

 

 

My eyes hurt so much from rolling 

[MrBrad]

Whether true or not, to say Chiang Mai's pollution is not as bad as somewhere else is like saying that Chiang Mai's traffic congestion is not as bad as Bangkok's.  I actually heard that said about 25 years ago.  The race is on, and we're catching up on the traffic contest, but we've already won the prize on the pollution.

 

As for when it really gets bad, staying indoors does absolutely nothing if the home or store isn't sealed and the inside air isn't purified.  Keeping doors and windows of those "safe zones" closed is a must--or opening doors as seldom as possible.  Hiding out at the malls or in other shopping areas or theaters or non-hermetically sealed houses doesn't help.  The air inside is the same as the air outside.  It's quite impossible to purify the great amount of air inside the shopping center.  Moreover, the doors are constantly letting in more filthy air. 

 

Most Thai homes have countless gaping cracks and relatively large areas where the pollution can easily come inside--mine included even though it's constructed quite a bit better than average.  Thais seem to love to have doors left open.  Besides the fact that purifiers are too expensive for most of my neighbors, the purifier would be totally ineffective in cleaning air that's continuously coming in from outdoors.

 

The only real answer to it is to temporarily move to a place where the air is cleaner, i.e., to the oceanside or to another country.

[HaleySabai]

On 10/27/2019 at 11:51 AM, dcnx said:

What universe are you living in?

 

1) That’s about the dumbest thing you could possibly say about the situation. 

 

2) Chiang Mai was THE worst polluted city IN THE WORLD more than once last year, beating out every city in China and India.

 

 

 

In fact, Chiang Mai was either no#1 or in the top 3 position for nearly 8wks!

 

[Bassosa]

2 hours ago, HaleySabai said:

In fact, Chiang Mai was either no#1 or in the top 3 position for nearly 8wks!

 

And as a result many foreigners contemplating a visit now think that Chiang Mai is polluted year round!

 

Which is kinda true....

 

 

 

[moontang]

3 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

And as a result many foreigners contemplating a visit now think that Chiang Mai is polluted year round!

 

Which is kinda true....

 

 

 

Only if you count rats, garbage, and canals more toxic than the Love Canal.

[jak2002003]

On 10/24/2019 at 10:55 PM, MisterBleach said:

If the burning next year is worse than it was this year in 2019, still this will not be much of a problem for me.

 

I have downsized my abode, which means less volume of air to filter.  Also, I have stockpiled many respirators.

 

Even today, in Chiang Mai, the AQI was about 80 to 90.

 

This is not a problem caused by Chiang Mai, and not a problem solely caused by burning in Thailand.

 

In fact, this is an intractable problem which has no good near-term solution.

 

Therefore, the best strategy for individuals is to prepare now, and install high-quality air purifiers in home of small size, and then to hope there are no power failures of long duration, which there usually are not.

 

No matter how bad the air might become next year, it still will not be as bad as many cities in both India and China, for example.

 

No doubt, it will still require years to gradually solve this problem, and we do know, from experience, that this problem will eventually be solved.

 

So, breathe easy, and take it easy, and keep your 3M respirators close.

 

 

 

You might be happy to sell up and live in a sealed shoebox with your air purifiers running 24/7 for months on end without ever opening your front door....

 

but I would be bored out of my mind living like that.  

 

When the pollution gets bad this year we have made up our minds to go on an extended holiday and return after the worst is over.  I could not wall myself up in isolation for months on end watching TV and eating stored up old food... what a waste of your life!!  

 

Oh, and CM was the WORST polluted city in the WORLD by the way.  

[New beginnings]

I don’t know about other countries governments but the UK Foreign Office website clearly warns of the poor air quality specifically in Bangkok and Chiangmai. Under travel advise they warn the poor air quality may aggravate bronchial, sinus or asthma conditions. Children, the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions may be especially affected. They make no mention that this is a seasonal event. So the message it seems is out there.