Chiang Mai air quality the third worst among major world cities
Chiang Mai was ranked the third worst city in the world for air quality on Sunday morning, the website of an international firm monitoring air quality reported.
IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, reported on its website at 9.16am on Sunday that Chiang Mai was third worst with a 179 AQI (air quality index) and 110.25 micrograms of PM2.5 fine pollutants per cubic metre of air (µg/m3).
AQI is a measurement of air pollutant concentrations in ambient air pollution and their associated health risks.
The site classifies air quality into five categories: good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, and very healthy.
Chiang Mai fell in the unhealthy category as its AQI is in the range of 151-200 and PM2.5 is in the range of 55.6 to 150.4 µg/m3.
The bad air quality in Chiang Mai prompted Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to visit the northern province on Friday when Chiang Mai was ranked the worst major city in the world for air quality.
The list of international cities measures air quality in the heart of such cities. But when the website was checked for just areas in Thailand at 9am on Sunday, it reported that Chiang Rai had the worst quality with 218 AQI, putting it in the category of very unhealthy.
On Sunday, Prof Dr Kwanchai Suparatpinyo, director of the School of Health Sciences Research of Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Medicine, posted on his Facebook wall on Sunday morning that air quality in Thailand continued to be bad although fewer hotspots were detected in the country.
According to Kwanchai, at least two areas were in the brown zone – areas with dangerous air quality – having PM2.5 levels averaging more than 250 µg/m3 per hour; 16 areas were in the purple zone – extremely bad air quality – with PM2.5 level averaging between 151-250 µg/m3 per hour; and 148 areas were in the red zone – bad quality – with PM2.5 level averaging between 56-150 µg/m3 per hour.
Kwanchai also quoted data from the S-NPP satellite that there were almost 2,000 hot spots in Thailand during the past 24 hours up to 5.30am on Sunday and 7,000 hotspots in Myanmar.
He said the S-NPP satellite showed that there were over 100 hotspots in Chiang Mai on Saturday.
He noted that the Meteorological Department had warned about low air mobility in Chiang Mai on Sunday so the PM2.5 pollutants would accumulate throughout the day.
Meanwhile, a Facebook page, Ai Chong, which reports on current social issues in China, said Chinese influencers had warned Chinese tourists about travelling to Chiang Mai due to the poor air quality.
The Ai Chong page quoted some people as saying they would not travel to Chiang Mai for now because of the high smog level.
The page said Chinese social networkers have also used the hashtag #ChiangmaiSmogSeason.
