Nearly 200,000 more hospital admissions in Thailand

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More than 1.3 million people have experienced health problems due to air pollution since the start of the year, Thailand’s health ministry said Thursday.

A yellow-grey haze has been hanging over the capital Bangkok for days, which has eleven million inhabitants and is an attraction for tourists from all over the world. This consists of exhaust fumes from vehicles and industry, but also the smoke released when harvested fields are burned.

Authorities recommend staying indoors

Children, pregnant women and people with respiratory and heart problems were asked to stay indoors. Everyone who left home should wear protective masks, Health Ministry physician Kriangkrai Namthaisong warned.

During similar levels of air pollution in late January and early February, Bangkok authorities urged residents to work from home. A spokesman for Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said a similar order would be issued if the situation deteriorated further. Before his election in May last year, Chadchart pledged to improve environmental conditions in Bangkok.

Checkpoints have been set up in the city to remove vehicles with particularly high exhaust emissions from the road. So-called dust-free zones have been set up in public nurseries, ie rooms equipped with air purifiers.

Dust particles can enter the lungs

The Ministry of Health of Bangkok announced on Wednesday that harmful concentrations of the particularly dangerous particulate matter category PM2.5 have been measured in 50 districts. These dust particles are so small that they enter the human bloodstream and reach deep into the lungs. Also on Thursday, PM2.5 levels were well above the upper limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The situation in Chiang Mai was even worse. Located in an agricultural area and popular with tourists, the city was listed on Thursday by the air monitoring agency IQAir as the third most polluted city in the world.

(AFP)

Source: Blick