Daniel Powell vividly captured Tuesday’s peak hour traffic struggling through the gloom on Highway 118, Doi Saket Road, just outside Chiang Mai.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry will ask for financial support from Asean to deal with the smog crisis in the North, a problem that is more serious than the haze from Indonesia's forest fires.

Environment Minister Kasem Snidvongs said yesterday he would organise an emergency meeting early next month with Laos and Burma, which are also affected by the haze, to find solutions.

He said the problem of trans-border haze was one of the issues discussed at the recent Asean meeting in Brunei. Members agreed they would help provide financial assistance to countries facing the problem.

The smog crisis in the North was continuing to worsen. The Chinese Consulate in Chiang Mai yesterday said it was considering a travel warning for the area as the situation could not be controlled and the level of harmful dust in the air was getting higher by the day.

Consular official Jin Yilin said the consulate was preparing to tell Chinese citizens not to go to Chiang Mai and other provinces in the North. Jin said she had monitored the situation closely and could not envision an appropriate measure to deal with the problem. She said she still saw people burning rubbish and farm waste.

The air quality monitor at the Pollution Control Department (PCD) yesterday showed the average level of dust was smaller than 10 microns in Chiang Mai. It had reached an average of 310 micrograms per cubic metre (mpcm), the highest level since the smog crisis began.

Yupparaj School was recorded as having the highest level of particles at 383 mpcm. Since the thick smoke began to cover the province two weeks ago, the level of dust smaller than 10 microns had been getting higher every day. On March 1, the level was 190 mpcm.

Dr Surapol Anthakarnkijkul, director of Chiang Mai University's Institute of Public Health Management, said the small particles could penetrate into the lungs and if mixed with carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and other gases generated by combustion they could cause cancer.

Dr Chatchai Khunrangsisombat, from Nakhonpink Hospital, said he was concerned the smog crisis would increase lung cancer cases in the province. Chiang Mai was listed as having the highest number of lung cancer patients in the country, he said, with 40 cases in every 100,000 people. The national average was eight in every 100,000 people.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanond was expected to check the situation today. An ad-hoc committee looking into the problem, chaired by Paiboon Wattanasiritham, the deputy prime minister and the Social Development and Human Security minister, was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting in Bangkok.

While the major cause of the haze was believed to be the burning of garbage and farm waste, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry yesterday unveiled statistics on forest fires in the region. Environment Minister Kasem Snidvongs said since March 3-13, there had been 6,800 forest fires, of which 2,612 happened inside protected forest areas. Altogether more than 31,000 rai of protected forests had been destroyed by the fires, he said.