"Haze"

Greater Bangkok and northern provinces will be hit by harmful levels of PM2.5 haze next week, the Centre for Air Pollution Mitigation warned on Saturday.

Forest fires have raised the level of particulate matter less than 2.5 (PM2.5) microns in Phayao province to unhealthy levels.

The Pollution Control Department (PCD) plans to accelerate efforts to control and extinguish fires and ensure strict monitoring of forest fires in order to solve the haze crisis.

Villagers in Phayao province are currently facing the problem of toxic haze that is causing difficulty in breathing, sore throat and burning nose.

Construction sites that produce too much dust will now face a tax as the government tries to tackle the dust particles crisis, the Minister of Finance Uttama Savanayana said.

A wildfire in the forest near Chaloem Phrakiat Thai Prachan National Park in Ratchaburi that created a haze over the area was limited today (January 20), Forest Preserve Unit 3 head Suchart Buabang said.

The air quality in some parts of Bangkok is in unsafe territory, with particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrograms per cubic metre averaging 46-106mcg per cubic metre on Friday (January 10).

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa were in Chiang Mai on Thursday (October 10) to give provincial governors and state agency officials a pep-talk in preparation for another agonising season of forest fires and haze.

There is nothing new to the haze from forest fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island creeping across Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand as seen again this past week.

Heavy rain overnight in Yala on Tuesday improved the air quality and helped the residents breathe easier after pollution levels rose dramatically in the southern province as a result of the smog caused by forest fires burning in Indonesia since early this month.

Smoke from forest fires in Sumatra, Indonesia, caused the 24-hour average levels of PM2.5 – airborne particulates 2.5 microns or less in diameter – in Narathiwat and Yala to hit nearly 90 micrograms per cubic metre of air on Tuesday. The levels were almost double the Thai safe level of 50mcg and quadruple the World Health Organisation’s safety level of 25mcg.

Sattra Sripan, Palang Pracharat Party MP for Songkhla, met with the Indonesian consul general Fachry Sulaiman on Friday (September 20) to hand in a petition calling on the neighbouring country to tackle and prevent haze from forest fires, which has this week shrouded Songkhla and southern border provinces.