Burning Season 2019

[Cheesekraft 130]

The AQI has been registering over 150 over the last few days, it looks like we are in for a much longer and worse burning season this year, if this is any indication. The 2018 thread seems outdated as well.

[Pravda 1,812]

It's been registering for the last few months and even before it wasn't near anything acceptable.

 

Don't you guys go back to your own countries from time to time and just notice the difference how much better you breathe?

 

 

 

 

[blackcab 3,765]

Today is a bad air day in Bangkok aswell.

[Puchaiyank 8,375]

Thank you for bringing up the AQI concern.

 

I related this concern to a poster who wanted to come to Thailand and his questions were only visa related...

 

Received a nasty response from a TVF regular blasting me for bringing up the subject of air quality when the question was only about a visa...

 

Ostrich place their head in the sand to keep from dealing with reality...wonder where my poster friend has his head?   

[Pravda 1,812]

12 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

wonder where my poster friend has his head? 

[SoilSpoil 2,551]

Thw whole country, even Phuket, are in orange or red. Thailand us sucking up its own air pollution.

[villagefarang 14,729]

Really bad up here in the mountains.

 

[Puchaiyank 8,375]

I wear a facemask daily now when I go outside...something I swore to myself I would never do...helps some but some polluted air still gets through...clean something like micro particles of sand out of the corners of each every morning...

 

Nothing to see here folks...just some old expats whining about our wonderful Thailand...

[SoilSpoil 2,551]

2 hours ago, villagefarang said:

Really bad up here in the mountains.

 

Shame the air quality in the rest if the Chiang Rai province is unhealthy for 7 to 8 months a year. Could be so beautiful. I sadly left Chiang Rai because of the pollution.

[motdaeng 35]

3 hours ago, SoilSpoil said:

Shame the air quality in the rest if the Chiang Rai province is unhealthy for 7 to 8 months a year. Could be so beautiful. I sadly left Chiang Rai because of the pollution.

unfortunately i have to agree with you! we would like to move as well,

but personal commitment do not allow it right now. since a few weeks

our air purifiers are in use, even the burning season hasn't started yet ... 

[villagefarang 14,729]

Personally, I only find it unpleasant for maybe three months a year and each year is different.  Last year was pretty bad, I must admit.  We are very healthy, pretty flexible and adapt to our environment, doing different things and different times of the year.  We have no desire to leave the area and we are very happy here most of the year.  We went hiking this last weekend with friends and while it was foggy with a lot of low cloud cover, the temperature was in the low teens and the air moist and fresh.  When the mist cleared on occasion there was still pretty good visibility.

 

 

[canopy 1,521]

It would be interesting if you could bring an air quality meter up there the next time to compare it with lower elevations. And/or a new picture to show changes in visibility as the dry season progresses. In my experience people that care about their health and fitness a great deal have more concern about air pollution than those that are not. So your attitude that you can take it better than the average person is surprising. PM 2.5 will enter your bloodstream just as easily as the next person, probably more if you are doing vigorous workouts, and this isn't good for wellness.

 

[Samuel Smith 1,439]

24 minutes ago, canopy said:

It would be interesting if you could bring an air quality meter up there the next time to compare it with lower elevations. 

 

Took my meter up to 1500m in early March last year.  pm2.5 reading about 50.  That's AQI of 137.  

[villagefarang 14,729]

1 hour ago, canopy said:

It would be interesting if you could bring an air quality meter up there the next time to compare it with lower elevations. And/or a new picture to show changes in visibility as the dry season progresses. In my experience people that care about their health and fitness a great deal have more concern about air pollution than those that are not. So your attitude that you can take it better than the average person is surprising. PM 2.5 will enter your bloodstream just as easily as the next person, probably more if you are doing vigorous workouts, and this isn't good for wellness.

 

In my experience, many of the people demanding perfection from Thailand and the environment are people who neglect their health on so many levels.  Many smoke, drink, are overweight, drive dangerously and have anger problems.  

 

I do sometimes have slight allergy like symptoms but have no heart or lung issues and I do modify my exercise and lifestyle depending on the weather and how I feel.  If I am wrong and my environment knocks a few years off my life expectancy, and I die at 90 instead of 95, like many of my relatives, I will accept that.  My mother smoked most of her life, only stopping in her later years, and still lived into her 90s.  One of my greatest worries, is living too long.

 

I am happy to let people make choices about their own lives and how they want to live but I expect to be allowed the same freedom of choice.  The internet being what it is, we mainly hear from the angry unhappy folks and I simply want to represent my own personal opinions which are somewhat less negative.

 

 

Edited November 13 by villagefarang

[canopy 1,521]

47 minutes ago, villagefarang said:

In my experience, many of the people demanding perfection from Thailand and the environment are people who neglect their health on so many levels.  Many smoke, drink, are overweight, drive dangerously and have anger problems. 

Aside from this I completely agree with everything you said and I really enjoy and admire your upbeat attitude and incredible photos and inspiring experiences. To give you a comparison expats in my area tend to come from working class backgrounds, are overweight, in poor health, no fitness, poor diet, and their only care in the world seems to be saving a few baht at makro. They don't talk about air pollution and astonishingly I find many are in fact out there burning their plastic trash in their yards just like the thai's do. They don't have air purifiers or air monitors and they're bored to death if you bring the air up while drinking their cheap chang in front of them. I have yet to meet one expat that cares about the air pollution or even the environment. Thailand seems to attract a certain type of individual. I see there are a few concerned here at Thaivisa and that's good. But it's not a popular topic as clearly the lions share of expats are lamenting visa changes, TAT numbers, government competency, and those sorts of things which get more posts in a day than this subject will in a year.

 

And asking for clean air to breathe is not asking for perfection. It's asking the minority to stop being selfish and ruining the air everyone else is breathing and making innocent people sick and die for no good reason. It's just asking for the most basic courtesy and concern for others sharing the air, not perfection.

 

Finally, saying something just lops say the last 2 years off your life would indeed be ideal, but that's not how it works. You'll get ground down 2 years earlier. Everything goes bad 2 years before it should. You lose 2 good years, not 2 bad ones trimmed off the end. It can be difficult for some to accept part of short time we have on the earth being stolen by inconsiderate people whose habits would not be tolerated one bit where we come from and surely in the future, not in Thailand either.

 

Edited November 13 by canopy