The choking haze that’s been hanging over northern Thailand and causing respiratory problems for thousands of people has led to Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son being declared disaster zones
For the last couple of weeks, Chiang Mai, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand, has been suffering from a persistent haze caused by crop burning which has led to a huge increase in respiratory illnesses and complaints. If you are planning to visit Chiang Mai, you should double check where your destination and try to get updates on how bad the haze is in the area where you’ll be.
Here’s the article about it from today’s Bangkok Post:
“The northern provinces of Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai have been declared disaster zones, as the number of people with respiratory problems has soared amid continuing forest fires and thick haze.
“The declaration will facilitate anti-haze operations and create public awareness of the necessity of the ban on burning activities,” Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham said yesterday.
Governors of disaster provinces are empowered to allocate emergency budgets at will to cope with the crisis. Any province where the level of small dust particles in the air exceeds 200 milligrammes a cubic metre (ug/cu m) will be declared a disaster area, Mr Paiboon said.
The concentration of dust particles less than 10 microns in diameter in Mae Hong Son had risen from 278 ug/cu m on Sunday to 284 ug/cu m yesterday.
In Chiang Mai, the dust level measured in Mae Rim district jumped from 185 to 196 ug/cu m, while in Muang district it was 203 ug/ cu m.
Any reading above 120 ug/cu m is considered unhealthy. Very small particles penetrate deeper into the lungs than ordinary dust and become embedded.
Mr Paiboon said the accumulated number of respiratory patients in Mae Hong Son had risen dramatically in just three days, from 416 on Saturday to 3,541 yesterday. In Chiang Rai, cases skyrocketed from 1,780 to 11,148 and in Chiang Mai from 1,370 to 4,514, he said. The first cases were recorded on March 1.
His Majesty the King has instructed the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry to set up a special rainmaking unit in Chiang Mai to support forest fire control operations and ease the drought problem. “
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