Advice to work from home is given due to Bangkok air pollution.
Forest fires and farm fires in Thailand’s capital have made the already unhealthy air even worse.
Bangkok is engulfed in air pollution, and those in need are being given face masks.
Bangkok residents have been urged to work from home and wear face masks due to the dangerous levels of air pollution in the city.
Officials urged commuters to utilize public transportation instead of private vehicles and declared that they would work to eliminate sources of pollution such open burning and building activity. Authorities in Bangkok announced that face masks would be given to those who were at risk.
Chadchart Sittipunt, the governor of Bangkok, stated that although pollution was predicted to worsen on Thursday, schools were not required to be closed. “I want to advise folks to be ready by looking up the pollution level before making travel plans.
Construction sites and truck transportation are two activities that produce dust, and the BMA [Bangkok Metropolitan Administration] and pollution department will manage those sources, he said.
Transport restrictions would be taken into account if the situation got worse, he stressed.
In Thailand, especially in the north-west, agricultural burning and forest fires are substantial contributors to air pollution between December and April. Bangkok, which already experiences poor air quality due to its manufacturing, construction, and traffic, is impacted by the pollution from these fires.
According to the Swiss air quality business IQAir, PM2.5 levels rose to 63.2 g/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre) on Thursday morning, well exceeding the WHO annual air quality guideline of 5 g/m3. The worst places in Thailand were in Samut Songkhram, southwest of Bangkok, and Lampang, in the north.
The health ministry’s permanent secretary, Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong, stated this week that the situation would be monitored by all provincial public health services, and that emergency centers would be opened in any provinces that had experienced high levels of pollution for more than three days in a row.
An additional mile on the “expressway to climatic hell” according to the environmental study for 2022
Learn more.
Opas said that from roughly 96,000 patients last week, there were almost 213,000 this week, a more than twofold increase. The majority of people had respiratory tract issues in addition to signs like dermatitis or eye infections.
According to Chadchart, the situation will be constantly watched throughout the month of February and was anticipated to become better in March.
